Double Ascension
by EscapeToCity
Summary: They love, they live, they rise. The complete story. *Slash*; warning for 'character death'


DOUBLE ASCENSION  
  
Author: EscapeToCity  
  
Category: Alternate Universe  
  
Rating: R  
  
Summary: Passion, depression, oceans of angst, a little sex, a wedding chapel, pain, revelation, some violence, some bad...some good. Lots of love...true devotion requires great sacrifice! Clark/Lex. SLASH.  
  
Warning: Character death.  
  
Spoilers: none I can think of  
  
Disclaimer: NONE of these characters belong to me. I am simply painting a scene for them to play in. Peace, blessings & praise to Warner's, DC, WB & Millar/Gough.  
  
"Genius of Love" lyrics copyright 1981, 1982 Sire Records/Warner/WEA. Written by Tina Weymouth, Chris Weymouth. As performed by The Tom Tom Club. No copyright infringement intended. Lyrics/phrases also drawn from song "Zooropa." Track 1 on album ZOOROPA; Copyright 1993, Island Records. Written & Produced by U2, Brian Eno. No copyright infringement intended. I love U2.  
  
Note: Once upon a time, this was a collection of separate stories (posted in December 2001)...now I have combined them into one big piece...with the *most appropriate* name, in my opinion. I tried to make it obvious where the former splits were while making sure the story *flowed* as a whole... Please read and tell me what you think...  
  
My warmest regards, as always...  
  
-J.B. @Pass Christian 9/14/02  
  
EscapeToCity@aol.com  
  
  
  
  
  
....and it was like a neverending PARADE....  
  
The glamourous city of Metropolis was surely among the most beautiful and urbane on the globe. From far away, it glittered like the world's most dazzling collection of gems; up close, it throbbed with light, sound and power;vement ofllions of souls in and around, under and over, together, separate, blended, unified in progress and sophistication.  
  
Metropolis was world-renowned for everything because it did everything in such an over-the-top fashion. Hundreds of stores lined Broadway and Central. Thousands of banks and financial firms occupied space along Golden Row and The Rivery. Companies like Shreck's Stores, LuthorCorp., Pennyworth Financial, Rich-Harvey Bancshares, Global Shipping, Air America, Lemaris Maritime and The Big Cheese Restaurants were headquartered in the city. Every day thousands of newcomers arrived here; to see and be seen, to explore and to discover, to lose themselves in infinite possibilities. The words "impossible" and "recession" were unknown to the Metropolitan citizenry.  
  
The skyscrapers of Metropolis were famous in their own right and justly so. From the Art Deco spire of the Daily Planet building to the post-modern pinnacle of LuthorCorp Centre, the buildings defined the city as much as Shreck's block-long emporium or the fountains and statues at the Civic Center & Hall of Justice. Metropolis had the most photographed and revered collection of tall buildings and architecture in the world. Clark Kent was fascinated by this display of steel and power as the glass elevator slowly crawled up the side of the First of Metropolis Plaza. This specific tower was sixty-five floors of gleaming marble and chrome, crowned by the ultra-chic Viewpoints Grill and Bar. Clark was focused on the skyline view but his stomach grew more and more nervous as the elevator inched upward. This was the night he would seal his "love pact" with Lex Luthor. ******************************************************************** Lex had made it very obvious a few weeks back that he was desperately "in need" of Clark. In need of him as a brother, a best friend, and as a lover. At first this was both confusing and unnerving to the high school freshman. Why did Lex, a grown man, a college graduate and brilliant scientist, need him? Lex had seemed so cocksure, so self-reliant, so strong. Stronger of mind perhaps than even Clark's wondrously strong body. But looks are so, so deceiving. Clark had quickly discovered, then confirmed, that Lex was deeply depressed, even suicidal.  
  
Not long after the Kents' old friend Earl had been placed at the S.T.A.R. Rehabilitation & Research Center (for surgery and recovery), Lex had called Clark in the middle of the night. Lex had seemed tense ever since the entire hostage experience at the LuthorAg of Smallville facility. His parents were none too pleased but allowed Clark to talk as it was a Friday night and young Luthor sounded so despondent.  
  
Clark heard the conversation echo through his mind..  
  
******************************************************************** (The recent past)  
  
"Clark save me again.please.. I am so scared"  
  
"Lex what is wrong? Seriously you should be happy. You have brains, a fortune, you're attractive, and fun to hang out with.stop being so hard on yourself dude."  
  
"You lie poorly Clark.so very poorly.and your naiveté is appalling but understandable.I have nothing. I'm the walking dead. A ghost. I have no one to love me and no one who cares."  
  
"You're so wrong. I care Lex, I really do. You're one of my best friends now."  
  
"If that is true, do you trust me Clark? Do you trust me? Would you put your life in my hands? Would you let me take control? Would you lose yourself in me? Could you?"  
  
"I'm confused Lex.what are you asking?"  
  
"Would you get inside me? Would you burrow into me and never crawl out?"  
  
"Huh?.damn.ummm" (Thinks for a minute and then figures it out, sort of.)  
  
"Lex.umm.If you mean get inside your soul I think that happened when I saved you at the bridge. We are connected. We are friends"  
  
"I need more..you don't understand do you? How can you? You're so goddamned young.the things I am thinking would ruin.taint you."  
  
"Lex are you drunk.seriously man.have you been drinking. Dope? It's cool if you have I mean it's not good for you and all that just say no stuff but-"  
  
"Clark you aren't ready. And I am too tired to wait any longer. I've got a classic Colt 38 special here, cocked and loaded, and it's going in my mouth. I am going to blow myself straight to hell tonight Clark and no one can stop that. It's probably better anyway. I have done nothing but bring pain to this world. I have hurt the only people who tried to care-Victoria, Dom, even my mother.I am a horrible person and I must be punished. My father says we pay the highest price for sins of the heart. It's time I cashed in my dirty chips, Clark."  
  
"Lex please don't hurt yourself. I need you, please."  
  
"Clark I met you too late. I was already damaged goods. Maybe if I could have been around more people like you things would have been different. But I was raised a snowman Clark in an ice palace of indifference. I was raised on material bonds and financial considerations. I have no feelings Clark. I am amoral. I am a demon. I will destroy you if you allow it."  
  
"I'm strong Lex. I can defend myself from anything."  
  
"Anything, Clark?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"You still believe good triumphs over evil Clark. I thought the Cassandra experiences had taught you more about life than that."  
  
"Cassandra was a good experience. And she helped me see all those.umm..possibilities"  
  
"The old tramp died holding my hand Clark. So much for possibility."  
  
"It was a aneurysm, Lex. Please fucking stop calling it your fault. I hate to hear you sad. Please don't be sad. I know what sad is and I can't handle you sad too."  
  
Lex begins to sob heavily. Clark gets very agitated, tense. "Clark..I love you.you're the first person in a very long time who gave me a reason to breathe.. Please enjoy your life and forget you ever met me."  
  
"Stop it you fucking jerk.oh God, Lex I didn't mean-"  
  
'Yes you did and I am a fucking moron" Heavy sobs. "My life is a waste and now I am going to end it all before I hurt more people.like you...Clark.again I-"  
  
"Lex? Please don't leave the line.I will come over" Panics as he hears Lex loading bullets, heavy breathing, almost hyper-ventilating heard.  
  
"Lex?"  
  
A whisper nearly drowned by tears "I dreamed about you every night Kent. Of our future. Of you holding me. Sometimes soft, often rough. You fucked me into heaven Clark, in my dreams, and made me whole. Those thoughts alone will carry me these last few moments; your mother should be getting a note by the way.if you were asleep tonight, I wanted her to break news to you my sweet Super Boy.your mother is so sweet.so was mine.but she's fucking dead and I want to be there with her, with the worms, floating.Goodbye."  
  
Clark froze, horrified by silence. Then, as if blown on the winds of Aeolus, Clark raced to Lex's house. He didn't bother to attempt a quickie explanation to his parents. There was no time. Lex was likely already dead, his brains splattered all over the thousand-dollar suit and alligator loafers. Clark began to cry, hot rivulets of salt leaking down his ashen face.  
  
What would his life be like without Lex?  
  
He had no life without Lex. Before Lex, he had literally been a nobody in a nothing town. Sure he had a few friends, really good friends but nobody gave him the warm, fuzzy, respectful, exhilarating adult feeling that Lex Luthor conveyed to him.  
  
Lex made him feel grown. And normal.  
  
Lex made him feel like he wasn't the only freak in the world.  
  
He mournfully wailed into the wind as he continued to race through the woods. His cry shattered glass at the Fordman house and set off the alarms at the Lang stables. It took Clark thirty-one seconds to get to Lex's door, a very long run for him. He cursed himself for crying and screaming; they had slowed him down. He raced through the gates, not bothering to bend them back into place then literally leapt up to the second floor terrace and crashed through the bay windows of Lex's grand sleeping chamber.  
  
At that moment the gun went off.  
  
Lex slumped to the floor, blood pouring from his wound. His eyes bulging and crazed he looked at Clark for just a passing millisecond; eyes widening in shame  
  
"C---l---a---clllar---" fluid and fear killing the words."sorr.ry.Clarghhhk.." Begins to choke on own blood, crumples to the floor.  
  
Open, gaping hole the circumference of a dime at the base of his skull.  
  
Clark cried aloud, in shock and terror. He was too late he thought. He fell upon lex's still warm body and first propped up his head. Opened mouth wide and gently sucked air outward for Lex, then gently blew oxygen in for him.  
  
Breathed for him. Breathed with him. Would breathe for him forever if need be.  
  
Quickly applied pressure to the wound. Clark focused his eyesight as never before on Lex's motionless skull. His X-Ray vision in overdrive. A bullet was lodged just behind his eardrum. Lex had neglected to blow his brains out but had still done serious damage to his nasal cavities and auditory system. Something was odd about the spine/brain area but Clark didn't know what. He wasn't a doctor. Blood was coming from several severed arteries in his head. Clark focused harder to try and see every specific point of damage. Scanning the rest of Lex in less than a minute, Clark found his heart was barely pumping blood and his nervous system seemed to be in shock. Clark checked to ensure Lex's breathing passage was clear. He shuddered as he noticed Lex's lungs were filled with fluid. Clark began to whimper and lost himself in the tragic scene, just for a few seconds. He was only fifteen after all. He'd never seen anything so horrible as this, his friend Lex, shot and bleeding, self-inflicted horror on decadent display.  
  
Gently continued to breathe for him, with him. Attached himself to Lex like a human/alien ventilator.  
  
Just then, Dominic, Lex's assistant burst into the room. 911 were promptly phoned. Dom looked as horrified as Clark did although there was a glimpse of dark victory in Mr. Hardwick's eyes as well. Clark just stayed with/at/on Lex, acting as his lungs, his lifeline, his heart, and his future. Clark couldn't let him go. Ever.  
  
We have a future together Clark..Yes, Lex we do. And I will make sure we both live to see it.  
  
The ambulance ride from Luthor Manor to Our Mother of Mercy Medical Centre was a nightmare. Clark nearly attacked and killed the EMTs when they kept insisting he could not accompany Lex in the vehicle. Clark nearly threw all of them into Kelvin Pond and took Lex himself until the fire burning in his gaze made the EMTs see Clark Kent needed to be with Lex Luthor right now.  
  
Lex was in a near coma.  
  
Clark was still crying, and began slapping himself in a hysterical fit; sickened by the fact that he had not been fast enough to completely prevent this senseless tragedy.  
  
I can run so fast, see through solid stone, pick up cars like toys, walk through fire, float, and so much more. Yet I couldn't get there for Lex in time.  
  
What kind of fucking hero am I?  
  
Lex remained completely silent as the EMT sitting across from Clark worked frantically to drain blood and stabilize his vitals. Lex was in quite horrible shape. Clark focused his X-Ray vision on Lex's heart and saw it was nearly motionless, struggling to contract. Clark winced and began to wish he had simply carried Lex in his strong arms to the doors of Mercy himself.  
  
Mercy arrived soon enough. The newly-built facility on the western edge of Smallville catered to the old-money set of the town and was the finest in Lowell County.  
  
Lex was rushed on the gurney into a waiting Emergency surgery booth' Clark tried to go with him but was met by Jonathan Kent, his face stained with concern and even tears.  
  
"I know what he means to you.Your mother and I found the note.She's in the lounge trying to reach Lionel Luthor.Son, right now all I hope is for the two of you to get a chance to talk about everything; to see what life has to offer.everyone deserves that."  
  
"Dad.. I can't lose him.I can't lose my friend.I love him Dad" Bursts into tears. Wracked with pain Clark collapses. For the first time in memory he is tapped of his strength. He is broken. He is weary. He can't stop hurting. Jonathan holds him close, tight, trying to warm him, comfort him, and convey some sense of safety to his fearful and broken boy.  
  
'I can't l-l-lose Lex..If I lose Lex I will die too"  
  
Jonathan just held Clark tighter. Never a religious man, Jonathan Kent at that moment sent a desperate plea to God, Buddha, Shiva, Allah, hell the fucking Tooth Fairy...  
  
"Please save Lex Luthor."  
  
***************************************************************  
  
(Lex's Letter)  
  
Dear Clark:  
  
We have known each other such a short time. And yet I think we knew each other some other time, and we were close then too. I have loved you like no one else Kent. You are the most beautiful human being I have known. Physically you are a God but inside the view is even better. You have been so good to me, taking care of me, protecting me, saving me from myself. It hurts me so much to tell you that you reached me too late. I have been in decline a long time Clark and now I am just too tired to go on. My father has finally won. The fat lady is singing. By the time you read this there will be a bullet in me and you will be too late to save me. You shouldn't save me. I am a worthless cause. You deserve friends and lov-Well, let's just say you deserve happy people around you, worthy people.people who will never betray you. I betray everything and everyone in my life Clark. I am in the process of betraying you as I write this. No need to elaborate, because after my death all that information will vanish. You and your family will be safe from my paranoid delusions. If I lived, you would not be. I am evil and cannot be trusted. Thus, I am putting a stop to the madness. I am gone now Clark but I loved you..I wanted you to know that. I had hot, sexy, fucking fantastic dreams about you every night, about your fabulous body and princely crown of hair and your strong arms holding back from danger. I will carry the image of you, my God, Prince, brother, Saviour, with me as I pass to the other side.  
  
Please, please forget me and try to live a good life. I was nothing but a short-term experience. You deserve long-haul love and success.  
  
You can't be human Clark..you're too good, so much better than all the other people in the world.  
  
Love always,  
  
A.L.  
  
****************************************************************** (A few weeks later)  
  
Clark felt a warm hand brush his moist face. He was not sleeping at all.  
  
He hadn't slept since that night. Funny, he always assumed, as a human sleep was absolutely necessary. Now he had learned that as a alien freak, he could stay awake 24/7.  
  
"Clark you must eat and get some rest baby.He knows you are here.but he wouldn't want you to get sick yourself." Martha's face was rife with anxious concern. She had never seen Clark this way, even after she & Jonathan had revealed he wasn't human.  
  
"Mom.I can't leave him" Clark whispered, grabbing her hand, pleading with his hazel eyes.  
  
"I wasn't there in time. I can't ever leave him, not ever again"  
  
Martha nodded, scared for her son yet completely understanding his needs.  
  
"Clark, honey.please just remember that he will return to you. He must want to live, he's still fighting.that's hope enough in itself" She ran her fingers through Clark's unruly mop of silky black hair.  
  
"OK Mom.. I will come by the farm tonight.don't worry about me.just keep thinking positive thoughts for Lex."  
  
"You know I will.your father will be so glad to see you tonight at the house. We both love you Clark and whatever you need, whenever, you know we are here for you."  
  
She kissed him on the forehead and quietly slipped out.  
  
Clark's mind flashed through memories of time spent with Lex. Watching television, lip synching to talk shows. Remembered how Lex made him feel not so strange, not so different. Fireworks at the party. The look in Lex's eyes when he saw how happy he had made Clark. Lex smiling. White teeth glistening in the sun. How could Clark not fall in love with him? So what if being a gay alien might not be an ideal life? Who exactly defined ideal anyway? Lex made him feel alive, real, possibly human..He couldn't lose him..  
  
Memories overwhelmed him. Clark began to softly weep. He couldn't ever stop, really. Just when he had found his possible soulmate Lex had attempted suicide. Now he was comatose. Eyes wide open, staring at the plaster ceiling. Mouth agape, stuffed with tubes to keep him alive. Hands at sides as if pre-cast for the coffin. Macabre scene for damn sure. Yet Clark had left the hospital for perhaps three hours at most in the last three weeks.  
  
He just sat there. He talked to Lex for hours. He stroked his hand. He kissed him; on the forehead, fingers, toes, even tried giving Lex a blowjob to see if he would respond. Nothing. Nada. Zip.  
  
Desperate. Clark wanted to be where Lex was.  
  
Called sometime friend Lana Lang. Lana appears in record time. Has it on, luckily.Doesn't even seem to notice Lex is lying there.Vacant seductive slutty eyes focus on Clark and Clark only.  
  
"Bet you'd like a back rub Clark.You must be so tense." Licks her lips.  
  
Guess she doesn't see the GUY I love is sick. Moron slut, Clark thinks. How did I ever like her? She's a cheap façade.a one-way lust machine. Still..green glow.  
  
Lana is beaming. She thinks this is so cute; a guy taking care of his best friend. Plus Clark looks so sexy, all exhausted and stressed. She knows how to handle a exhausted stressed stud..just ask Whitney. After football practice. Anytime, Anyplace. Smirks.  
  
She doesn't see the dynamics have turned at 180 degree angle. She is no longer the icon of Clark's lust/love. Lex is.  
  
She is so in love with herself though she will never get love like Clark/Lex. Clark doesn't give a fuck. He brought her here for only one reason:  
  
"Can I borrow your necklace?"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I'm doing some research on the meteor rocks"  
  
"You're so smart Clark Kent.first Nietszche now meteors.how hot! Sure.here it is" Takes it off and hands it to Clark, not noticing the instant nausea that racks him.  
  
"Well, I've gotta run Clark. Nell is expecting me. We're going to Tesmacher's at the Galleria for facials."  
  
Barely a whisper. "OK..thanks Lana.I'll get it back to you very soon. Have fun with your aunt."  
  
"Will do, Clark Kent..will do." Winks seductively.  
  
Whore, Clark thinks. How many times did she put out for Whitney? Nasty. Unclean.  
  
He and Lex are clean.  
  
Clark vomits suddenly. No.not clean at all.He and Lex are pollution. Sewage that clings together in the cesspool.  
  
The taste of bile turns him on.  
  
Clark feels stoned, like the one time Chloe gave him a hit from the water bong she purchased in Gotham City:  
  
Hallucinates, envisions, applies, adapts Green glow. I'll be with Lex soon, he thinks. I'll be there to hold him in the dark. He'll never be lonely again.  
  
Lex I love you. I have loved you since you held my hand that day at the movies. I loved you in dreams. I want you. I need you. I will have you any way I can.  
  
The meteor glows a sinister green as Clark begins to heave and sweat. He turns off the television and the overhead light to make it appear that he is resting while spending time with Lex. No nurse check-up until Midnight he thinks. It is 4pm.  
  
My parents..the thought of them hurting rushes him. He sees Martha & Jonathan crying in pain, at the loss of their adopted miracle baby.  
  
I'm so sorry, Clark thinks. But at least they have each other. They got me for twelve wonderful years. Nobody has ever taken care of Lex. I have to be his mother & father now. Green glow. Please understand. Please Mom. Please Dad. I love you but Lex needs me.  
  
Needs me.  
  
Needs me.  
  
Glow. Green. Red runs down my hands. It hurts and I love it. How long before I pass out? Lex wait for me. Please God let Lex wait for me. I want you inside me Lex. I'm so sorry I froze up and joked on the phone. I was scared. I knew what you needed but I tried to go around it and you tried to die as a result of my avoidance.  
  
I'll never avoid you again.  
  
I'll never leave you. I'll never let you go.  
  
Sweat rolls off him. It hurts and I love it. Love pain. All I have ever done is cause pain, Clark thinks. Just like Lex. He ruins lives and so have I. My meteor shower has ruined Smallville, who knows what else. Bunches over in pain. Scared just a little. Dying.  
  
Dying. I'll be there soon Lex. I killed Smallville. Tina, Sean, Coach, Earl.Lana's parents.the thousand damaged by the meteors..I am a killer.Lex you are too.LuthorCorp & Clark Kent are members of the same Reaper society.  
  
We are both evil and must be destroyed. Oh fuck this hurts.  
  
Lex help me. Save me..  
  
We must be together. I will make sure we are together.two murdering freaks.two doomed souls.  
  
Clark leans over, dazed, stunned and battered by shocking bolts of pain.the air smells strong and sickly and sweet. Pain everywhere. Heart trying to break out of chest. Hand pulsing green veiny vomit. Let me go. Just as he reaches to switch off Lex's ventilator he retches, clutching his stomach and shaking violently. Feverishly he calls out Lex's name and falls unconscious to the linoleum floor.  
  
***************************************************************** (Somewhere within) The carnival in my head dances. The colors and swirling visions of blue planets and secret lives and flying caped men dance across in a never- ending parade of surreal beauty and remembrance.  
  
It's warm here and I have red hair.  
  
Once in a while, I see them. The real people. They are still in & out of his life. Always holding my hand, sometimes laughing and crying, sometimes just sneering at me.  
  
I choose not to respond. What's the point anyway? It's warm & colorful here.  
  
And I have a big head full of carrot hair. Yummy carrot edible hair. A parade route full of red hair. Red like love.  
  
(That boy from the bridge, the one he hit, the liar..the beautiful Boticelli boy.the sweet natured one.he's always here.never leaves.he's not warm and colorful)  
  
He's sad and depressing. Brings back the edge and pain of how it used to be.  
  
He really wishes that kid would smile. A distant memory connected with pearly teeth and a winsome smile).  
  
Not that anything from then matters in the now.  
  
Sometimes he comes to visit. I try to hide further in the warmth then; His wild eyes and hair are scary. He's scarier than the cook beneath me is. At least the cook is obviously mean. This wild hair man looks like he wants to skin me alive, then eat the bone.  
  
Wild hair man thankfully doesn't come much.  
  
And the dancing bears in my head entertain and please me. Please smile Boticelli boy with the nappy hair. Please.  
  
Smile for me. I try to move and find I can't.  
  
Boticelli unkempt hair boy looks sadder than normal.  
  
What is he doing?  
  
What in hell is he doing? No, no no , no nOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
I reach out. Lighting bolts and glowing green and wails of realization mixed with reunion and destruction and orgasmic pleasure.  
  
And then it is real. The flesh has become word and I am back in the world. And fucking bald again.  
  
(Reunion)  
  
Clark.I'm here baby.I'll never leave you. Breathe.that's it. Don't cry.we're together and yes, this is all real. Stop..don't talk.I just threw that fucking rock out the window.Don't say anything, I get everything. You & I have nothing we need to reveal..Time will reveal anything unsaid.Secrets will bond us.Revelations will seal us into eternity...just let me hold you..just let me love you..forever Clark, forever..  
  
**********************************************************************  
  
(The World Inside Martha)  
  
When that nurse found Clark nearly dead with Lex awake and holding him I think the fates were playing a huge joke on us all. Not that I'm not ecstatic about all of it. It's just that to picture Clark so helpless is so very hard. Jonathan & I raised him to be strong and stable. Which he was, which he is.I think that first loves can really cloud the judgment of anyone, even our miracle baby. I am upset at the thought that Clark tried to kill himself. So badly he wanted to join Lex. I can't say I don't understand the motivation. If Jonathan were to die before I, who knows what I would do to join him. I guess what scares me is Clark's lack of faith in hope itself. I told him over and over again that Lex would come out of the coma all by himself. Clark got so fragile without Lex, like he couldn't breathe. Lex wasn't dead; he was literally sleeping, after all those years of pain. Twenty-one years of self-hate, cocaine addiction, random empty sex at back alley Metropolis bars and a father who loathes you can do that to a man. I have grown to know so much about Lex and as a result more about Clark. I know Clark's secret is still just that but Lex knows the truth, the unsaid reality. I'm fine with that because I trust Lex. I trust him to take care of Clark; love him and hold him and reassure him and give him the confidence Jon & I can't. Like I said, Clark is much more fragile than we ever wanted to admit. Lex's suicide attempt shattered him. Only Lex's recovery can put Clark back together. We have given and will always continue to give Clark love and affection. Perhaps, however, Lex offers Clark a kind of salvation and reverence we cannot offer. Maybe Lex is the next step in Clark's evolution.  
  
All I know is that when I look at them I see love. Clark should be in Metropolis by now. Hold each other.never, never let go.  
  
Clark holds Lex so close to him as the wind caresses both their souls, cooling the fire ever so subtly. Here, on the sixty-fifth floor, in a garden, overlooking acres of diamonds, Clark & Lex are one.  
  
"Lex, I love you."  
  
"I know. I love you, forever."  
  
"We will never be apart, will we?"  
  
"Not time itself could pry us apart Clark. And if it tries we'll fight it."  
  
"I'd die without you."  
  
"Same here Clark..same here."  
  
"I'm tired of all this talk, all these issues."  
  
"Let's love then.let's make the word real."  
  
And so it was.  
  
Their mouths intertwined, suction pulling them closer. Who cares if they watch? Hand on hand. Cock on Cock. Mouth everywhere. Tongue everywhere. Moan. Cry. Whimper. Groan. Laugh. Arched back. Loose lips, smooth, tanned muscled hips. Fingers trace bald dome of phallic love. Tanned abs give way to precise licks. Cum spattered Gucci wear; flannel dropped down to underwear. Inside and hot and tight and sweaty and it's the best feeling either of them will know. Innocent lust and beautiful corruption. The feelings here and now. No need to play mind fucks and strip poker. Everyone plays and anything goes. Clark falling into Lex. Lex falling likewise. Hardness meets love. Love begets confusion and loss. They need nothing but passion now. Cum begets water. Sweat begets wine. The moon hangs over their writhing forms, providing soft light. The sun and moon share the same face and the world turns upside down, rocked by the force of true love.  
  
Heat intense, like concrete sidewalks in July.  
  
They will always be fragile. They need to hold each other in order to survive in the cruel world.  
  
They will always be desperate. After all, out of desperation comes the strongest passion.  
  
Their love will always be. Even after no one remembers existence itself.  
  
And the city lay at their feet like a field of stars, thrown across the future like a blanket of pure bliss.  
  
For now.  
  
because...  
  
I'm in heaven With my boyfriend My laughing boyfriend  
  
There's no beginning and there is no end Time isn't present in that dimension.  
  
Clark rolled over on his side, blinking at the bright morning sun. He yawned lazily then slumped back down onto the silky bed.  
  
Lex Luthor loves me.  
  
He's the GENIUS OF LOVE...  
  
The thought rolled over and over in his head, nearly making him dizzy. Lex & Clark had officially been together for six months now. They spent every free moment together. For Clark, that meant weekends after chores. For Lex that meant anytime he could sneak into the barn at the Kent Farm and ravish his beautiful boyfriend.  
  
Which was quite often. Lex had a lot of free time lately.  
  
After the incident a few months prior, Lionel Luthor, upon returning from a pipeline construction project in Afghanistan, had stripped Lex of most of his duties at the LuthorAg plant in Smallville. Lionel enlisted Dominic Hardwick to run the plant until such time as Lex was "recovered."  
  
In the past this would have devastated Lex. But not now. Now, it freed him, liberated him. Now he could spend as much time as he pleased with Clark and do research, any sort he wanted, during his solitary moments.  
  
Clark was always on his mind. Obsessive, sure, but healthy because both of them cared so very deeply for one another. Clark and Lex had formed a bond that seemingly no one could ever shatter. They were solid. Still, there were issues hovering over their happiness. Clark was still just a boy of sixteen to Lex's twenty-two. The Kents had been extremely understanding and were working with the two to make sure some kind of relationship could be created that respected both Clark's age and Lex's sensitivities. There was a fear on the part of all concerned, however, that parties not so amiable would discover the relationship.  
  
The local church nuts. Homophobes. Ignorant PTA moms. Nell "Loose Lips" Lang. Child Protective Services. Smallville Police Department, Child Molestation Investigations Officer. County Attorney's office. The National Intruder. The Daily Planet. The Gotham Star. Metropolis Now Magazine. Barbara Walters. The list went on and on.  
  
The damned national Intruder had already run a huge article on Lex's dependency on cocaine. Club Zero. The Pit. The Painted Donkey. Every backdoor club in Metropolis had a Lex story to tell. Horrid pictures of Lex stoned and in grotesque sexual positions splashed across even legitimate papers like the Daily Planet. Seems there was a leak at the London office of LuthorCorp. But no one could figure out who/how/where.  
  
Of course all that was moot now. All Clark wanted to do was make sure Lex stayed clean. And to make sure their relationship didn't make the headlines like Lex's affinity for nose candy.  
  
So they learned to play things by ear. They learned to hide. For some, this might have seemed unhealthy but for Clark & Lex it only heightened their resolve to make things work. Clark told no one at Smallville High. His fellow Crows still took Clark for a tall freak, that "nerdy" Torch article writing guy, the one who always falls over around Lana Lang. What a wuss! They laughed. Clark took it all in stride now because he had something they'd never have. He shared a bed and a soul with Lex Luthor.  
  
One person had figured it out back when Clark tried to join Lex in the netherworld. Chloe Sullivan, Clark's closest female friend, hadn't taken to the relationship as well as Clark had hoped; (incidentally, Chloe & Pete were the only two people everyone had agreed could possibly be let in on the existence of "Clex" as a couple.):  
  
"You're still fucking Lex, Clark?" Disgust in her voice.  
  
"Chloe.you don't have to make it sound nasty or skanky. We make love. I hold him, he holds me."  
  
"You're fucking dumb Kent.Lex is using you for a hot piece of ass."  
  
"Don't call me dumb and don't you insult my boyfriend! I have been your friend forever Chloe and will continue to be but don't you ever talk about the guy I love that way. You don't even know him."  
  
"He's rich, he's a manipulator, ex drug fiend-"  
  
"Hey Chloe he's been clean ever since he came to Smallville."  
  
"He tried to kill himself, Clark.he got you thinking offing yourself was the way top go to.I'm just scared for you. He's a dark person and you are so full of light. I don't want you to change I guess."  
  
"I won't change, Chloe. I promise. You and Pete will always be my pals. We will always be like family, OK? Trust me please. I am so happy to have Lex in my life. I want you to be happy too."  
  
Chloe shrugs. Grits teeth. "OK, Kent.I'll try to accept your dalliance with Mr. Luthor. But if he hurts you he's gonna have another gun at his head."  
  
"Chloe! Please don't say things like that. I love him so much." Tears in his eyes.  
  
Clark puts his backpack down and buries his face in his hands. "Please understand.he makes me feel good about myself.He makes me feel smart and handsome and whole."  
  
Chloe softens. Thinks about what Clark has just said. ".you really do love him.fuck.wow.(long silence; incredulous look on her face) OK.the secret is protected.but what about Pete?"  
  
"Ill try to talk to Pete soon. He deserves to know."  
  
"Yeah Clark. Pete's a good guy, loves you like a brother. He'd be O.K., I know it."  
  
"I'll try to tell him soon Chloe. I've gotta get to English. See you later." One million-watt smile.  
  
"Clark Kent." she stops."I can see how Lex Luthor couldn't help but fall for you."  
  
Clark looks embarrassed also flushed with pride. Chloe smiles, walks away towards Torch office.  
  
Lex Luthor decided to take the Bentley out on this warm April afternoon and he sped through the fabulous wildflower displays on the roads west of Smallville. The landscape was ablaze in colors; blood oranges and violets and emerald greens. Tall sunflowers had sprouted all along Grand Avenue and they formed glowing, happy lines of welcome as he entered the city.  
  
LuthorCorp.'s newest Smallville venture, the thirty-story Smallville Financial Centre, was beginning to rise at the corner of Locust and Grand Avenues. This would be the tallest building in the city, by far, and would be seen fifty miles away at night. Smallville was considered "America's Best Small Town To Do Business." Lex was glad to see the progress and even more glad that Dominic was having to deal with all the labor disputes at the LuthorAg plant as well as the massive controversy surrounding the height and bulk of the skyscraper downtown.  
  
Smallville preservationists screamed and ranted daily about the new tower. Just twenty years ago, the tallest thing in Smallville had been the "World's Largest Ear of Corn" on Locust Square. The fifty-foot high sculpture was completely destroyed in the meteor shower of 1989 and a fountain installed on the site as a memorial. The Smallville Society for Savings had erected a fifteen-story office complex in 1994 but the new LuthorCorp building would change the skyline forever.  
  
LuthorCorp's slogan for the building: "Bringing Metropolis to Smallville"  
  
The Smallville Galleria was the other project LuthorCorp had constructed that forever changed the city. Completed in 1999, this 1.7 million square foot mall was anchored by Shreck's and Tesmacher & Co. department stores. Two hundred clothiers, eateries, arcades, shoe shops, and everything else in between lined the marble corridors.  
  
Lex chucked as he entered Shreck's pretentious glass atrium. His father had wasted one hundred million dollars on this project and the mall was mostly devoid of shoppers. Lionel had bribed many a chain to open a store in Smallville and was paying most of them to keep their doors open. All those business shenanigans were of no interest to Lex now. He was here on a mission. Lex glided up the escalator to the exclusive "Metropolis Man" section of Shreck's. Here one could find the finest in Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, Calvin Klein, and other couture fashions for men.  
  
Lex was immediately smothered by staff. He knew exactly what was needed. He gave them instructions and within minutes, three bags had been carefully packed and readied for carryout by Mr. Luthor.  
  
Lex tipped all of them well. Shreck's always offered fantastic service. The flagship store in Gotham City was famed for it.  
  
Lex walked downstairs to the Epicure Shop. This section of the store offered delectable gourmet foods and spirits. Lex procured a beautiful portion of foie gras, a little tin of caviar, some fresh eggs, fresh angel hair, a couple bottles of sparkling grape juice, and placed an order for a Blueberry cheesecake, to be delivered to Luthor Manor by 7 o'clock that evening.  
  
Barely carrying his many purchases, Lex made it to the revolving doors and sat down at the outside bench. A smile came over his face. He was so very excited about this evening. Clark would be so surprised and so happy. He just knew it. Lex felt warmer and more content that ever before in his life.  
  
Martha Kent had just completed writing out the bills for April. For once we made it, she sighed. Jonathan & Martha were so very thankful that the winter past had been mild. They were able to grow late into fall and sow need crops early. Kent Farms might actually turn a profit in 2002. Her mind turned from business to her son Clark.  
  
He's so deep in this Lex thing, she thought. I wonder, if anything were to go wrong, what would happen.She and Jon had agonized forever about allowing Clark to have this "relationship".Clark was so young but he was mature. Lex was so giving and caring but so damaged. There were many things to be concerned about. Finally, the Kents had decided to allow a "new kind of relationship" to exist for the two young men. Lex could under no circumstances allow the relationship to impede his recovery; nor could Clark. If Clark's grades began to slip, no more Lex. If Lex's sobriety was threatened, no more Clark. Clark & Lex had to agree not to expose themselves to Smallville gossip and scrutiny. Jonathan especially didn't like the idea of the two living a "lie" but Martha convinced him of the danger to Clark if anything at all, about Lex or anything else, were to rise to the surface. Jonathan made sure Lex knew if anything happened to Clark, Luthor was a dead man. Lex took him at his word.  
  
I pray we can keep this crazy situation from destroying us all.  
  
She didn't like to think this way. Ever. Martha was a woman of the finest quality and the kindest heart. She knew to her core that Lex loved her son and vice versa. She had to worry, of course; she was a mother. Clark was still just a child. A child who had grown another inch (now 6'4"), a child who ate enough food for twenty men, loved sausage pizza, and still called her Mommy when he was sleepy.  
  
He really was such a joyous and beautiful person. A person. Spaceships and meteors be damned. Clark was more human than most people she'd ever known.  
  
And so was Lex. Such pain and hurt in that young man's eyes. So much hidden there. Hard core loneliness, something she could relate to, having grown up in that cold upper-crust townhouse on the upper east side of Metropolis. She could relate to Lex completely. Cold father, lack of love, running wild young. Destroying herself with drugs and alcohol. Yes, she'd been exactly where Lex was. Only one day, while getting plastered with college chums at the Metropolis Hilton, Martha found herself face to face with the most masculine, warm, attractive, stable face she'd ever seen. Jonathan Kent was in Metropolis to try out for the fledgling Sharks professional football franchise and was looking to have a beer.  
  
After 12 beers and six hours, Martha knew this was meant to last forever. She cleaned up her act that day. Jonathan didn't make the cut with the Sharks but he and Martha were married three weeks later.  
  
Martha knew exactly what real love was. She was living proof of its genius.  
  
"Martha!" Jonathan called as he entered the kitchen. Her mind jumped back from that warm bar at the Hilton..she smiled brightly at her husband.  
  
"How are the fields?"  
  
"Great, my fair lady." Kisses her hard and passionately on the mouth. She pulls him closer, fired up.  
  
"You know, Jon.Clark is going to Lex's tonight.we could pull out a bottle of wine, maybe rent a movie.a little playtime for Ma & Pa.." Chuckles to herself.  
  
"I'm game, Mrs. Kent..let's play tonight.any game you like.you set the rules."  
  
Jonathan looked like a eager little boy in a God's body. Jesus, Martha thought, I'm as bad as Clark. Giddy. Youthful. Alive. Martha smiled. Jonathan reached down and took her hand in his. Their eyes met with mutual respect and adoration.  
  
Life was sweet.  
  
Lex stopped into the flower shop to pick up the last item on his list. Nell Lang glared at him as he approached her counter to pick up his order. Nell was one of those sad, pathetic women who wishes for the stars but is to lazy to fly towards them. She had tried, and failed, as a youngster to manipulate and control Jonathan Kent. Her scheming and lies are what prompted Jonathan to look into playing for the Sharks. She inadvertently had sent him into Martha's arms.  
  
Now she had to take care of her dead sister's brat, Lana. There were no hot men in town to date. All the men her age were married, fat, broke, had bad credit or drinking problems. The only good man around was Jonathan. But that damn Martha bitch had him thinking she was something special. Bitch.  
  
"Nell.Hi.Busy?" Lex's eyes caught hers and she snapped back.  
  
"Mr. Luthor.Lex.how have you been?"  
  
"I'm terrific Nell.my father sends his best."  
  
"Lionel.hmmm.he's such a worldly, fascinating man." Flashes back to those glorious nights on the Luthor yacht, docked in Nice, Lionel draped over her, inside her, pouring champagne over her body, licking at her. Yum.Lionel.  
  
If only that dumb brat niece of hers hadn't come along.she might have snared Lionel "Long John" Luthor..Yummy..  
  
"Nell.you seem unfocused today.you feeling alright?" Lex is genuinely concerned.  
  
"Oh, just fine Lex.." She's always wondered if Lex inherited "everything" from his father.  
  
"I just need to pick up the black orchids I ordered"  
  
"Of course.." Wonders who they are for."Such exotic, rare beauty Lex.whoever could these be for...Victo-"  
  
Cuts her off."Of course not.you know that was over ages ago."  
  
"Someone is mighty lucky then..our mystery person gets flowers flown in from Bali."  
  
"Only the best is good enough for the ones we love, Nell."  
  
"But of course." winks curiously..her mind is wickedly curious.Who is Lex fucking? Whoever it is, they have turned little baldy out!  
  
Whoever they are they are likely bowlegged now, if Lex is anything like daddy Lionel..swoon...Daddy Lionel..  
  
Pays for his flowers. Smiles at Nell. Nell winks again, pushes chest out. Lex almost snickers but composes himself. Nell laughs like a two-dollar hooker.  
  
"Tell Lionel to call me, Lex.We should catch up, maybe he needs to put one of the champions out to stud.needs a breeder, perhaps? It is spring you know." Thinks about melted butter all over her body...yummy.  
  
"Of course, Nell.(walking out the door) but I'm not sure when I'll be seeing him. We don't talk much these days." Waves as he exits.  
  
"Oh Lex.whenever is fine with me..Take care."  
  
Yum-yum..  
  
Clark Kent made his way down Grand Avenue towards The Beanery. It really was a beautiful day, he thought to himself. The sky was a deep azure color and the air was mild. People seemed lighter, friendlier today, and Smallville was abuzz with renewal and new hopes.Maybe it was just Spring gone to his head.he laughed at himself.  
  
The Beanery sat just off Grand on tiny Maiden Lane. This street was named in honor of Lucy Lee the Milk Maiden, who was made famous for having pet bovines. Her cows were featured in a 1938 Life Magazine article. Clark sometimes winced when he thought about how bucolic Smallville had once been. The pre-Meteor Smallville. Creamed-Corn Capital. The city that had existed 130 years, happily, before his arrival changed the course of history.  
  
But like his mother always said, he could not do anything about how he arrived. He was just a baby. From an unknown place and circumstance. He had to start picking apart that ship though. Lately he had nearly forgotten about it, with Lex and all, but it jumped in his head suddenly that he needed to try and figure out his past, as best he could. Maybe, just maybe Lex could help. He knew most of Clark's secrets now. He was a brilliant scientist. Perhaps, just possibly, he could help Clark to unlock all these mysterious, scary doors to his heritage.  
  
Maybe. Clark didn't to do anything that might stress Lex or make him anxious. He assumed Lex was one hundred percent fine but at night sometimes, he thought differently. When Lex would sneak into the Fortress to fuck and then sleep for a few hours, Clark guarded him like a hawk. He knew the hell they would catch if Jon or Martha busted them sleeping together. That was not allowed under the rules.  
  
Lex had awful nightmares sometimes. Just like Clark had as a younger child. Except Lex had nightmares that gave him breathing fits.  
  
This really scared Clark. He had all these super abilities but he could never find a way to prevent Lex's asthma acting up.  
  
It usually happened about two hours after both of them had dozed off. Nude, holding each other in the straw & cum-scented love nest. Clark usually holding Lex inside his strong arms; Lex's face buried at Clark's chest, seemingly glued to his heart.  
  
Clark loved this arrangement. He felt like an angel enveloping Lex with safety.  
  
But often Lex would begin to shake and wheeze, knocking Clark out of his warm fuzzy slumber and into panic. Lex very nearly turned blue. The inhaler took several hits to kick in. Clark felt helpless when this happened.  
  
Lex reassured him it was all right. If anything, Lex explained, his asthma was much better than it had been as a child.  
  
Still Clark was terribly concerned.  
  
One night in particular Lex really freaked him out.  
  
They had been asleep about thirty minutes. Tonight had been exhausting. Versatility usually is. Clark had pounded Lex's ass so hard Lex was sore. Clark felt guilty. Lex had made Clark come six times. Lex felt worn out. Clark felt greedy. Still, they were both extremely satisfied and Clark had held Lex in his arms afterwards as Lex read Emerson out loud (Clark had a English test coming up). Snuggling into the warm quilted comforter, Clark felt plain good. Lex was smiling as he faded into sleep..  
  
"C-l-llark." wheezing Lex whispers to his slumbering boyfriend.  
  
"Cl." begins to choke. Coughs loudly, shakes. Quite scared, claws at Clark's chest.  
  
Clark springs forward. "Lex! Fuck! Breathe, calm down.try."  
  
Lex nods but he can't draw any air in and he is trembling, tears falling down his porcelain skin.  
  
"Lex.here is your inhaler.now please try.take it in." Clark holds the inhaler to Lex's mouth, presses down, tries to make sure it works properly.  
  
Lex nods, still trembling.Clark hears the steroid mist shoot inside Lex's mouth and throat. Watches Lex with the deepest concern. X-ray vision into Lex's larynx, lungs..fluid everywhere.fear there too.  
  
"Lex open your mouth.don't be scared.please baby."  
  
Lex still isn't drawing much air.steroids haven't kicked in..he's so fucking scared.Clark leans over him, caressing his tears away with strong fingers and plants his mouth over Lex's, ever so gently.  
  
Breathes for him. As he has done so many times. Only here, uses a little force to literally suck the fluid from Lex's lungs. Not gross at all because he loves him and will not watch him hurt.  
  
Lex feels freer. Clark helps as needed. X-ray to check passages. Lex stops crying. Steroids kick in.  
  
Clark doesn't sleep again that night. He watches Lex. Makes sure air moves in, moves out. Uses vision to watch Lex's heart, lungs. Can't lose him now.  
  
He is so fragile. ************************************************************************ This kind of thing happens frequently. What does it mean? Clark hopes that its not his presence that makes Lex choke. He knows Lex had been asthma free from the meteor shower until after he awoke from the coma. Since then, however, he's so reliant on that inhaler.  
  
What would happen if he lost it and I wasn't around? Clark panics, an image of Lex alone, doubled over, gasping for air with no one to save him..crying.  
  
Clark himself nearly cries at the image.I've got to be there for him. He has no one else.  
  
He finds himself at the counter of the Beanery. Looks around for Pete Ross. Good old Pete. Good pal. Hope he takes the news well.  
  
I cannot believe my ears. Clark Kent is rainbow brite.  
  
I always said he was too damn pretty. Fuck! Oh shit, he's coming back, gotta think of something cool to say.Chloe's OK with this, Clark said.I've gotta be cool with my boy.gotta be.he's had my back so many times.here goes.  
  
"So, Clark.how'd the sex part? I mean.is it hot?"  
  
"Pete.c'mon dude.I mean, I didn't come here to describe what Lex & I do. I just wanted you to know the truth. We're only telling people we trust."  
  
"I really do appreciate that Clark.I'm just a little shocked, you know?"  
  
"Of course, Pete.man, I didn't even know I was gay or bi or whatever myself until aLex came along. He opened my eyes."  
  
"Are you sure you aren't just going through some phase Clark.I mean, you were sprung on Lana Lang forever.are you sure Lex isn't just a fill-in for her.?  
  
"No!" Says this loudly and feels embarrassed. "Pete.look.I know it looks like Lex is a 'rebound' crush from Lana but I realized that Lana wasn't all that great a person.Lex is everything I need right now and he makes me feel.well, I really can't explain.he just makes me feel all fucking happy and bright and bouncy."  
  
"Clark that sounded really gay!"  
  
"Well maybe that's just me.big goofy gay Clark." Pete laughs.."Well goofy gay Clark this guy is always gonna be your pal. I could care less who you do." Smiles and pats Clark on the head.  
  
"Get Lex to take you to the barber, boy.you're looking shaggy."  
  
"He likes it like this.says I look trashy and hot." Laughs. Blushes.  
  
"You've got it bad, Clark.my boy.you've got it bad.but that's cool."  
  
Clark is so glad Pete is all right with this. Now his two oldest friends, the only people outside of Lex, Martha, and Jonathan who love him, they know the truth.  
  
It feels so good to be honest, especially with the people you care about..Clark smiles.  
  
Luthor Manor is all lit up this evening. Fresh flowers adorn the main rooms. Lex is seated on the marble bench in the Conservatory. This is his favorite room in the entire house. A replica of a roman palazzo, with Italian Renaissance detailing. The gorgeous "Mercury" fountain he obtained from the Smithsonian is perched atop the stone fountain. The water dances from Mercury's heels and falls into the marble bowl, creating musical bliss. Lex had sixteen Mexican Fan Palm trees brought in to occupy the ninety-foot atrium. Bamboo sits in still zen-like pools. Bananas are fruiting on the western edge of the room. Birds of paradise and hibiscus bloom here year round. Lex's mother was an avid gardener; this is the last vestige of her legacy in any Luthor house. She cultivated tropicals and annuals, bulbs and roots, spices and berries, palms and cypress.nurtured the plants until they were strong enough to find strength in the warm sun. The conservatory was a kind of shrine to Alexandra Luthor.  
  
Clark was always dazzled, couldn't help but be, as he entered the Grand Hall at Luthor Manor. The corridor was a five hundred feet long and crowned by panels of stained glass. A dozen Etruscan statues lined the path and the floors were the most exquisite terrazzo, the Luthor family crest carved at specific intervals in gold leaf.  
  
At the end of the Grand Hall, one had to go right or left. Straight ahead and one entered the dark and somber Maze of the formal gardens. Clark didn't like the maze-didn't like the idea of unknown twists and turns, darkened revelations; the gardens on the whole though, were beautiful to him; two hundred acres of hardwood splendor, lush roses, and lakes, springs, creeks, and ponds. It was as if Lex went out of his way to re- create Eden itself.  
  
No gardens for this evening, thought Clark. He turns right, into the Conservatory. There was no on around. Only the sound of Mercury's waters and the rustling of the palms far above him. Then he looked towards the south windows and saw a tiny marble table set up just under the bamboo clump. Walking over, his curiosity piqued, Clark saw a gorgeous vase filled with the magnificent and rare black orchid. Clark reached out to touch a flower he had seen only in his mother's Botany books.  
  
It was so fragile looking. He didn't want to hurt it. He just stared at it.  
  
"It's like you, you know. It's one-of-a-kind."  
  
Clark slowly turned to see Lex, dressed in a tuxedo and holding the sparkling grape juice, two glasses.  
  
"Follow me, Clark"  
  
Clark wanted to grab hold of Lex and kiss him and rub him and grope him and fuck him right there. He was so cute right now, in his tux in this dream- like room.  
  
"Keep your shirt on lover." Lex remarked sarcastically as Clark nearly knocked him over with passion, licking at his neck.  
  
"I don't wanna, Lex.let's do something.right here.now."  
  
Lex wanted to so badly he was staining his thousand dollar black pants. But the best things came to those who waited.  
  
"Nope..c'mon Clark.patience is a virtue!"  
  
Clark sighed, but wasn't upset in the slightest. Lex leads him back out into the Grand Hall, then down into a small guest room to the side of the Library. Clark saw a tuxedo jacket, pants, tie, and cummerbund lying on the bed. There was a note there as well.  
  
"I'll be back in five minutes.we're eating in the Rose Garden.you'll love it, Clark."  
  
"Lex.wait a sec-"  
  
Clark grabbed Lex and tongues collided. Lex allowed Clark to dig into him, moaning. Clark's cock so hard against his faded jeans Lex thought about foregoing dinner all together. Hell he could let Clark fuck him fully clothed. Clark wanted to blow Lex right then and there. Lust was heavy and heady and then Lex found himself again.  
  
"No.I want tonight to be right my love.."  
  
"This is right Lex"  
  
"Yeah but I want more." smiled happily at Clark, grabbing at his cock through denim. "I think Clark Junior can wait a while..I want him to be hungry.very hungry." Licked his lips.  
  
Clark swoons.  
  
"Five minutes. Then sustenance time. Any type of sustenance you can think of in addition to the one-of-a-kind dinner I've got waiting." Lex blew him a kiss and exited.  
  
Clark took off his shirt and sat on the bed. He felt so happy. Lex was his, the weather was gorgeous, his parents loved him and he got a 92 on his English test.  
  
He looked at the clothes Lex had gotten. How grown-up, Clark thought. He sees me as an adult, an equal.  
  
The thought made him sit up straighter and smile so brightly the glow could have melted the glaciers of Everest.  
  
He turned his attention to the hand-written note lying next to the Shreck's bags.  
  
Picking it up, he noticed it smelled like Lex.spicy, sandalwood, leather..sweaty even.but good, taut, sexy sweat.  
  
The scent, the raw essence of Lex, it drove him damn wild.  
  
He read his lover's words:  
  
************************************************************************ Clark:  
  
Tonight I will show you As I do hopefully every day That you have brought such joy to me I can't explain what you do You touch me and everything is new I can't rhyme worth a fuck But this much is true This damn fool is in love with you  
  
Love,  
  
Your Lex  
  
  
  
feels like I'm dreaming but I'm not sleeping.  
  
It's hard to sleep when it's so sultry out...  
  
Summer in Smallville was always hot and sticky. Great swimming weather. Fat, juicy catfish in every local pond. The oaks and cottonwoods seemed to hang lower over the fields. The grain got tall and the sunflowers exploded.  
  
The gardens at Luthor Manor were no exception to the rule. Lex's extensive rose collection put on a display unrivaled anywhere between Denver and Metropolis. The lotus ponds, dormant during the chilly winter, were now luxuriant, smothering the placid waters with huge leaves and pod-like flowers.  
  
He decided to hold the soiree at the Lotus Court, southwest of the Manor.  
  
...PEOPLE MOVE, HUMAN PLAYS...  
  
Lex's Birthday fell in late-June. This year, for the first time in his life, Lex Luthor decided to throw a small, intimate birthday party; one involving no drugs, no liquor, no strippers, no payola, no bondage and little drama.  
  
Mainly he just wanted Clark Kent there. The man he loved.  
  
The guest list was very simple. Clark, his parents, Clark's friends from school, Nell Lang, and a few selected LuthorCorp employees. He mainly just wanted to look lovingly at Clark. He didn't give a damn if anyone brought him presents. All he wanted to do was look at Clark and start planning what positions he could fuck him in later that evening.  
  
Lex was head over heels for Clark. He had completely stopped the rest of his life, frozen his other interests. All he did was sleep, eat, love Clark, sleep with Clark, bathe Clark, fuck Clark, get fucked by Clark, sleep once more and dream of Clark. He didn't even go into town anymore, unless it was to pick Clark up or see a movie. Of course they usually watched movies at the Manor. Lex never had a need to leave his home. Clark came to him.  
  
Clark seemed as infatuated as Lex. All Clark did was think about him, his body, his sexy shiny head, his cock, his tongue, his brilliant mind.  
  
Others weren't so sure this was all so healthy...  
  
***********************************************************************  
  
Pete and Chloe were exhausted after a day of shopping at the Galleria. Pete had gotten a summer job at the Smallville Society for Savings branch on Walden Avenue and was buying some nice dress shirts and slacks to go along with his new, professional position...  
  
"See Pete, now that you're sixteen you can finally make some money to pay me back for all the coffee I've bought you over the years..."  
  
"Look Chloe what about all those sno cones I bought you...or when I borrowed my Mom's car to drive you to that clinic in Metropolis, you know Chloe, that was some fucked up--"  
  
Cuts him off quickly..."Fine, we're even...we really have more important things to talk about than trips to the city and sno cones."  
  
"Yeah...Clark is in some weird shit, isn't he?"  
  
"You're damn right, Pete...I am not happy about all this."  
  
"Chloe..it's not like we can tell Clark to stop seeing Lex..."  
  
"Pete I realize that...I'm not even sure that's what we're talking about...but something is off about this whole thing. All Clark does is hang out with Lex. He doesn't even spend anytime at his parents anymore, outside of helping with chores. He doesn't even sleep there, Pete..."  
  
"I know...man, it's still kind of weird thinking about Clark bent over..."  
  
"Don't need that imagery, Pete....and that's not the point..."  
  
"Yeah, you're right...sorry...man....neither one of them does anything else anymore. All they do is sit up there in that giant house, cut off from the rest of the world..."  
  
"Clark told me Lex is his sanctuary..."  
  
"That's great but everyone needs to leave the nest, at least once in a while"  
  
"Is it really our responsibility to force Beauty & The Beast out of the castle?"  
  
"Which one is Beauty?" Pete grimaces. "Clark hasn't been that friendly lately...I mean...he hasn't been a prick or anything. He just seems like he's too busy to hang anymore..."  
  
"I know. We haven't done anything in weeks, not since school let out. I'm really not sure I even want to go to Lex's Birthday deal..."  
  
"Neither am I...sure that is, about that thing...I mean, Lex barely acknowledges us...he's always real polite but he hides--"  
  
"--behind Clark, I know...he literally lets Clark coddle him like a little brat. Maybe that's all Lex knows...how to act in relationships...It's odd, though...when he first arrived in Smallville I thought he was so in control, so arrogant..."  
  
"...yeah and now he's Clark's bitch..." laughs heartily...  
  
"Pete! Fuck! You didn't go there..." Can't help but snicker..."Keep it down, you moron! You know people still don't have a clue what is going on..."  
  
"I'm worried for Clark if this all comes out."  
  
"So am I...no telling the damage that could happen...to Kent...his Mom & Dad..."  
  
"Does Lex understand that, though..." Long pause. "Chloe...does his understand how risky all these secrets are?"  
  
"I hope he does Pete, I hope he does. For all their sakes..."  
  
Long pause.  
  
"Chloe...my parents are going to Tulsa for a lawyer's conference. Wanna come over and raid the 'fridge? Have a little fun?"  
  
"I want to raid your father's double malt scotch...and you know I'm always good for a little fun Petey..." Licks her lips. It's moist in here...reverse sno cone.  
  
Pete looks afraid, very afraid. "Ummm...you know what happened last time...you sure, Chloe?"  
  
:"I'm looking forward to a repeat performance Mr. Ross.." Eyes glitter in anticipation. Pete gulps....feels kinda sweaty....  
  
***********************************************************************  
  
Clark has been looking everywhere for the perfect gift. The mall. The antique shops along Locust Avenue. The flea market out on the by-pass. Under his bed. In the attic. In the fields. He can't seem to find anything that Lex might want, nor need.  
  
He has to find something so wonderful, so distinctive....something Lex will never be able to forget it...or him. Lex. Maybe he's already forgotten me. Out there in La-La Land. Staying at the Mondrian. There's probably hundreds of guys in L.A. better looking than me. Smarter than me. He will probably dump me.  
  
Fuck. What would I do if he found a better deal? Why am I so damned insecure! Lex loves me....I think.  
  
Clark is walking along Honey Creek, the main water source for Lake Smallville and a lovely stream edged by cottonwood and cypress. He glances at the clear water, noticing the colorful fish at play. They are so aloof, he thinks. Their lives are so simple. They have no worries. I still have worries.  
  
Honey Creek is where Lex nearly met the fat lady. Just south of this pristine area, the creek widened into a dirty looking channel, crossed by the Smallville Loop and passing through LuthorAg's industrial park. Honey Creek no longer flowed sweet by that point.  
  
This place holds the secrets. It worries me. What if someone comes forward who might have been there, by the creek, and is just laying in wait to blackmail me and my parents. Perhaps even call the FBI or government lab on me. They will dissect me.  
  
Even Lex's money couldn't save me from Uncle Sam. They would hunt me down until I relented to their probes and scalpels.  
  
I am still so damn scared....don't feel safe...  
  
He hates to admit that, even to himself. But yes, nothing feels one hundred percent secure, even now. This situation with Lex is so unconventional. His own existence is so unreal, a *gay* alien who brought death, horror, and mutation to a peaceful town. Sometimes he wants conventional. Sometimes he wants simple.  
  
Simple.  
  
That's it. Simplicity. Clark thinks to the set of photos he kept from when Lex & he had gone to the Palace of Modern Art in Metropolis. Lex must've shot twenty rolls of film that day. Some of the pictures were goofy and candid; some were intense and artistic. Several were of Clark looking at Lex, gaze intense, mood serious, love so apparent it could leap right out from the glossy paper itself. One in particular involved Clark hanging upside-down from a Calder sculpture, his wild hair and dazzling smile so happy; Lex lying on the ground beneath him holding a white handkerchief, surrendering.  
  
Surrender yes, but the sweetest kind. Dark, serious Lex saved by whimsical, youthful, glowing Clark.  
  
Clark could carve a frame himself. He would put the picture in it. he was sure Lex would keep it always just as he would hold Clark always.  
  
Happy at finding a solution to his gift dilemna, Clark continued to trot along Honey Creek. The sun, the air, the trees; everything was hot and brilliant and flush with life and vigor. Clark strolled, so content, already forgetting his worries (It's easy to do so when you are sixteen...).  
  
Sadly, Clark Kent wasn't allowed to escape worrying that day. Just as he approached Jacob's Well, a deep section of the creek, he collapsed in pain. Abruptly feverish and panicked he looked around and noticed three large, boulder size meteor rocks. Green glow. They weren't there before, he was sure of that. There had been a nasty flood on this section of Honey Creek last November, just after the first cold spell. Maybe it had unearthed these rocks. In any case, he was vomiting and sweating and generally freaking out. Clark still didn't know what these rocks *were* but he knew what they stood for....death. And he didn't want to die. Green glow. He had come too close with the whole Lex situation.  
  
He vomited brown liquid onto the green grass. He felt woozy and tried desperately to drag himself away from the water's edge. The boulders sat menacingly, half submerged...seemingly dragging Clark towards them. Oh god....no...fuck....I could drown.  
  
Clark used to have nightmares about drowning. Never understood why. Warm bubbly water, pink sky.  
  
Clark began to bawl. He felt like such a damn wimp and a baby....but he was hurting so much. He cried aloud for his father, his mother, anyone. He began to tremble. Why was it so cold? He was going to die. He was never going to kiss Lex again.  
  
Please God help me. His throat began to close up. He was gasping. The sun, once friendly, burned him.  
  
Lex...Baby..don't leave me for a better deal....don't leave me....Lex...I can't see you....please...  
  
Lex....Lex...I hurt  
  
Just then he heard the hard gallop of a quarter horse...  
  
***********************************************************************  
  
Nell Lang was shocked to see Clark Kent sprawled along the path near Jacob's Well.  
  
"Lex....baby...Lex...baby...no...no...no....Lex...can't see you...Lex..."  
  
What was he saying? He looked damn hot, thought Nell...All flushed and sweaty. Just like his hot Daddy used to do. On my father's porch. On the football field. Ohhh...  
  
Composes herself as she gets close to the Kent Boy. What is he now, sixteen? He'd fucking drooling. Gross...didn't that horse Martha teach him manners?  
  
Actually Clark didn't look too healthy. He looked kinda in pain. Damn...he could actually be *hurt* or something. No play-play today....  
  
"Clark, honey it's Lana's aunt...Nell...can you hear me?"  
  
"Lex...Lex...L-....Ne..N-...Nell...?"  
  
"Yes, hon...what are you doing out here?"  
  
"W-w-w-as justtt walking along cr-r--re--.."  
  
He's fucking high, she thought. Saint Martha raised a crack head. Typical.  
  
"Clark I'm gonna take you home...can you walk"  
  
"Help me get back from....from the water...please..."  
  
"OK...are you afraid of the creek, Clark?"  
  
"Yes....just downstream is where the accident happened...where Lex h-----"  
  
Nell thinks...where Lex did what?  
  
"Where I saved....saved Lex from drowning...the car...you know?"  
  
Shakes off the questions running through her head. "Sure Clark baby, I remember. This place must give you the creeps..."  
  
"Ye--yes...Please help me get back from the water....please..." Barely conscious at this point.  
  
Damn he's beautiful. A little pathetic. *Swoon* "Here you go baby..."  
  
Nell is strong from years of lust, riding and spinning. She easily pulls Clark about twelve feet back from the creek. He breathes deeply, remaining silent. She stares at him, wondering how good the dope was he took. Still kinda unnerved by all that Lexian moaning....  
  
Why would Jon's boy be moaning? About Lex Luthor? Hmmmm...  
  
"Thanks Ms. Lang...you really saved me..."  
  
"Anytime, Clark baby...Look...my truck is just up the road...I've got to drop off Clio at the stable, but I'll take you to your mother first..."  
  
"I'd really appreciate that Ms. Lang."  
  
"Sure...anything for Lana's little pals..." Lana. Thank God she'd been shipped off to Europe for the summer. Little tramp. Trying to steal Nell's thunder. Nobody fucks with Nasty Nell. Lana had to learn that what Nell wanted, Nell got...and yes, sweetie, that included your hot little Whitney....and I got him...homecoming night, your birthday, so many "rides" to the library...yummy...  
  
"Ms. Lang can...can...we go home now?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
He still looked awful as she drove him home. He was breathing heavily...he seemed to be bruising or something. Didn't these kids ever learn to "just say no?"...Damn...he looks like shit...  
  
At least I found that gorgeous rock on the trail...day wasn't completely worthless. Looks kinda like an emerald. Ohhhh...I love emeralds. Resembles that damned thing of Lana's too. Maybe I should show it to Clark. Nah, he's a low-rent farm boy...no way he could know what it is. I'll just keep it here in the glove compartment...  
  
Nell had to stop twice to allow Clark to vomit on the pavement. He was literally turning green! Poor Jonny! Boy's a smack fiend.  
  
Nell Lang was intrigued. And amused. Clark Kent a junkie. Times really were fucked up, weren't they? She must remember to ask Lionel about Lex & Clark's friendship when she saw him at the Fairview Hotel fundraiser coming up....she & Lionel had a lot of catching up to do....  
  
She dropped Clark off, not even waiting for him to get to the door. No way in hell do I want to see THAT bitch. But she had bigger things than Jonny on her mind now. She was thinking prime time....and still....in the back of her mind she could hear that Kent brat ranting on about Lionel's heir.....Hmmmm...yum.....  
  
**************************************************************************** ***** Clark had staggered in the house, looking drunk. On closer inspection, however, she saw that Clark was terribly ill.  
  
"Meteor rocks...again...Mommy...so sorry....I didn't do it...purpose....by the c---...creek.....big....green...rocks..."  
  
"It's OK...honey....Clark...we've got to get you in bed...Let me take a look at you..."  
  
Martha gasped.  
  
Clark had these awful green splotches on his hands, chest, and back. He was wheezing. She could only remember this happening thrice before: at the foundry when he was small; the locker room incident with Coach & Jonathan; and of course the suicide attempt with the necklace at Mercy Hospital.  
  
******************************************************************  
  
  
  
  
  
What in hell are these rocks? Goddamn, if Clark was human we could find out if it were an allergy or something. But we can never let on that Clark isn't a regular human being. Never.  
  
This world isn't ready for *special* people.  
  
I put Clark to bed, stripping him of the dirty, wet jeans and sweater and wrapping him in the warmest quilts I had. Jonathan was in Metropolis for an organic farmers co-operative meeting. She wished he were here. If Clark doesn't improve in the next few hours I will try to get him to come home. For now, I will handle things on my own. Jon loves my independence and he is in Metropolis trying to keep everything going.  
  
I've got to take care of our son alone tonight.  
  
With Clark in bed, Martha hurried down to the basement. There she procured a humidifier, more blankets and one special item: a stuffed Kermit the Frog doll that Clark had slept with up until last year. Upon finding Kermit stuffed into the side of a duffel bag, she sighed at how fast time had flown. Just yesterday, it seemed, she & Jon had found Clark, smiling in the midst of apocalypse, speechless and spellbound by his beauty and charm.  
  
Every day since she found Clark had been a joy. For Jonathan just as much, maybe more. The pride in Clark's father's eyes as he watched his amazing son perform fieldwork. That pride in superhuman strength was matched as well in Clark's boundless kindness towards strangers and honest nature.  
  
Both Jonathan & Martha knew they had the best son in this world, even if he were of another world.  
  
Martha ran up the steps into the kitchen, where the pot of chicken & stars she had begun earlier was bubbly and hot. She poured a nice amount into a ceramic bowl, throwing in a few oyster crackers and some tortilla chips. With Kermit & soup in hand and blankets thrown over her shoulder, Martha entered her son's bedroom.  
  
He was so large these days...his body took up the entire full size bed, his legs dangling off the end. He needs a new bed, for sure, she thought. He usually looked so peaceful when asleep; even smiling. She came in many nights over the course of his life just to make sure he was breathing, that he was peaceful; to make sure some otherworldly parents hadn't come through the window at night to wrench him away from them.  
  
Tonight he looked pasty white; the usual athletic tan had been drained away; like he'd been bitten by a vampire...He was moist and hot to the touch, and she nearly gasped when she heard his ragged breathing. She took his pulse and was glad to hear his even, strong heart beat. She placed a cold compress on his forehead, holding his hand and praying, snuggling happy, green Kermit into his arms. Clark trembled and Martha wrapped him with another blanket. She stayed at his side through the night.  
  
Very early the next morning, just before the sun & moon shared face, Martha makes a phone call....  
  
  
  
"...He couldn't get the soup down but ginger-ale via a straw made him feel a bit cooler...Yeah Jon I know...I'm terribly frightened...we obviously can't take him to the doctor's...we've been over that thousands of times...maybe Lex...yeah...you're right...Lex knows so much as is...this may frighten him and if Lex gets frightened Clark is....Clark is threatened then, you're right...Lex is happy...let him stay that way...no...he hasn't been over...he's at Cal Tech...I think it's in or near Los Angeles honey....yeah, Clark convinced him to go...said Lex wasn't getting out enough...yeah, our boy is a charmer....(Begins to cry)...No, Jon...please...you don't have to rush back here...go to the meetings, get the information on the new crop rotation practices....I can handle this...I think....Clark is everything...to both of us, I know....we have to do anything to protect him. *Cries loudly....pause...* "Jon..he looks so weak..but...yes...his..his breathing is better...the green things seems to have backed off...this was the worse one yet....worse than the Lex thing...sure....oh babe...he's got Kermit....yeah, I found it in the basement....Clark is snuggling with him just like he did as a little boy...oh goddamn Jon...he still is my little boy....yeah...yeah...OK....believe me I will....don't worry I think he's gonna come around....I love you too Kent...I love you so much...see you Friday..."  
  
Martha stayed with Clark another twenty-four hours until things all seemed normal. But she was badly shaken. Smallville was a death trap. These damn rocks were everywhere.  
  
***********************************************************************  
  
Five days until my birthday, thought Lex. I'm actually missing Smallville. Well, not Smallville really. Just Clark.  
  
I need to hold him in my arms and suck him off and lick him and taste his raw sweat and....Aaarrggh!  
  
Lex chuckled to himself. He would be able to scratch this itch very soon. He was looking forward to getting back to his boyfriend, his best friend. Los Angeles was damp and snotty this time of year anyway.  
  
He had come out to the California Institute of Technology to talk about an endowment he wanted to set up for high school seniors interested in astrophysics. Clark, benevolent, beautiful minded, altruistic, Clark had talked him into coming out here. Clark would be so proud of him now. Shocked, certainly. Clark would be shocked that Lex had jump started the endowment with $65 million in cash and $15 million in Luthor-Worldwide Stock (class A of course...)  
  
Visiting Los Angeles had also given him an opportunity to take care of some very important financial business. For the last four years Lex had been setting up "shadow" accounts across the world, from which he would withdraw and/or deposit large amounts of cash without his father's(or the I.R.S.) knowledge. He procured the services of Isabel Carrerra for these transactions. A gorgeous native of Venezuela, Isabel had learned from the best; Charles Keating, Michael Millken, Ferdinand Marcos had all been clients. Lex met with Isabel (she was in town to help arrange financing for a French buyout of a Hollywood studio) at the Peninsula. Over drinks...  
  
"Lex, darling...you look so well....how old is he?"  
  
"Sixteen...looks twenty-five...beautiful soul..."  
  
"You watching yourself, darling?...they'll crucify you in damn America if they find out..."  
  
"Izzy...look...thanks for the concern but this one is different...he's making me a better person..."  
  
"I believe you dear Lexy...it shows in your face...you have a glow about you, darling...a practical, fabulous glow...you look like you've finally found what you needed..."  
  
"He's my soulmate, Izzy."  
  
"Well...does your soulmate know about the $460 million dollars you have stashed around the globe?"  
  
"No....and he never will...hopefully..."  
  
"Unless..."  
  
"You know."  
  
"Of course, darling. Well, you now have $50 million in non-negotiable bonds in the vault in Lucerne. You can access the $305 million in cash from Zurich, Luxembourg City, Grand Cayman, Bogota, or Caracas. The gems, art, manuscripts, assorted stocks...for these you will need to contact me or the Banco Industrial de Venezuela."  
  
"Perfection as always, Izzy. You've just been upped to 25%."  
  
"Now you are my favorite client...second only to darling Bill & Melinda...they are so sweet...and el bebe...darling....que cute!"  
  
Lex laughs. He genuinely likes and trust Isabel.  
  
"Well, darling...I'm off to Kowloon....will say hello to Victo--"  
  
"Please don't; that didn't end well, Izzy..."  
  
"Oh....well, darling...she was a bit of the 'cold fish' so they say....I must meet your fabulous new boy someday..."  
  
"Perhaps you will."  
  
Takes his hand in hers and holds it endearingly.  
  
"Monaco....see you there Lex....farewell, darling"  
  
"Monaco...yes...."  
  
Clark need never know about Izzy and secret wealth. Clark would only care about all the poor kids who now could go to college. Clark would bubble and froth with happiness for Lex's good deed. Clark would be proud of him, they could lay around the pool for days making love, and for once, he would have a fabulous birthday.  
  
Life was beautiful, wasn't it....Lex smiled to himself. If only I could bottle this feeling and sell it!  
  
***********************************************************************  
  
Clark felt one hundred percent recovered. Still, Jonathan would not let him out into the fields to help with the early harvest crops.  
  
Clark felt guilty and embarrassed. He could run two hundred miles and hour, maybe more, but nearly died from exposure to green rocks.  
  
I'm such a pussy...  
  
Just then Jonathan came in from the grain plot, wiping his brow with a towel, covered in summer sweat.  
  
"Clark...son...don't overdo it..." Furrowing his brow at the sight of Clark carving a block of wood.  
  
"I've got to finish this by Saturday, Dad...remember...Lex's party?"  
  
"Clark, your mother and I were thinking...maybe you should stay home"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Maybe you aren't strong enough for a party, Clark....this has nothing to do with Lex, son..if anything we want you to see him as soon as possible...it will lift your spirits I'm certain...but..."  
  
"But what...I'm confused here Dad..."  
  
"Clark...you have had so much happen lately...we just think more caution might be necessary...emotionally...Lex is very demanding emotionally and--"  
  
Angered, throws knife across barn; knife pierces barn wall, ends up hitting palm tree in Belize.  
  
"Don't you ever say things like that! You hear me!" Turning red, actually *scaring* his father. Lex is the best thing for me. The only person who will love me, the gay alien. Don't ever question our love. Ever."  
  
"Son...please calm down....we just worry...you must know that..."  
  
"Yeah...I know you hate that your son is a moron fag alien, Dad...stop trying to kiss Lex's ass...you still hate him....admit it!"  
  
"Clark...damnit you listen close...I don't want you ever using words like 'fag' again, especially about yourself. You are a strong, intelligent, wonderful young man. Don't ever insult yourself with derogatory terms. That's ignorant. We didn't raise you to be a fool."  
  
Guiltily..."I'm sorry Dad...I just can't have you talking about Lex that way...please let me go...please..." Huge doe eyes make contact with Jon's wise, weary ones....  
  
"Fine, Clark but we will be there as well...remember that...and you're only there for the party."  
  
"Sorry I'm such a jerk Dad..."  
  
Guess Lex will have to sneak in the barn late night, thought Clark....a smile spreading across his face. "Clark, everyone is a jerk once in a while....what are you smiling at?"  
  
"Oh, just the fact that I don't deserve a cool Pa like you...and that I should smack myself for being smart to you..."  
  
"Oh, everybody your age is smart-alecky. You all think you run the world. You'll see, sonny..." Musses Clark's hair. "You'll see."  
  
Clark smiles even brighter. His Dad is awesome. So is his Mom. She's making deep dish sausage pizza tonight and Lex will be home tomorrow.  
  
Life is grand.  
  
*********************************************************************  
  
Luthor Manor was decked out in its best finery. Even more elaborate than for the Christmas Bash Lionel had thrown just before the millennium.  
  
Lotus Court lay at the far end of Swan Lake, adjacent to the Orangerie. It was a sort of terrace, a raised platform of limestone, centering on a fountain of a cherub swimming in a blue pond. Lotus pads occupied the fountain basin as well as the entire reach of Swan Lake. The verdant pads gave the illusion that the entire scene was floating on a sea of kelp.  
  
For the birthday party Lex had commissioned Teshmacher & Co. to arrange a lavish dinner and dance, for thirty-five guests. Teshmacher's had delivered $70,000 worth of food, ice sculptures, a nine-tier cake, along with seven thousand purple balloons to the Manor at precisely three o'clock (he would have used Shreck's but the angel hair pasta had disappointed him recently). Lex had arrived back from Los Angeles at noon. He was terribly exhausted but wanted so badly to see Clark and to hug him, not to mention the things they'd do in the still of the night.  
  
Lex sat underneath the swaying willows above the court and silently congratulated himself on changing his life. Everything was as it should be. He finally understood what happiness was. This feeling had been hard to attain but quite easy to maintain, he hypothesized. He saw himself and Clark growing old together and traveling the world, seeing things to boggle the mind and stir the romantic kettle eternal. His placid thoughts were interrupted--  
  
"So you call this 'small & intimate'...interesting..."  
  
The sour, overmade face of Nell Lang shattered his calm. He had been extremely wary to invite her but a telegram from his father backed him into a corner regarding her attendance. Seems Long John was playing with Nasty again.  
  
"Well, Nell...." smirking at her horrid make-up and leopard skin bodysuit..."Two years ago I had five thousand guests at my party in Metropolis...I would say this is extremely intimate by those standards..."  
  
"I need to show you something later..."  
  
Lex looked at Nell quizzically.  
  
"Don't even think about it Ms. Lang...You aren't my type and aren't you fucking my father again anyway?..."  
  
Nell blushed, proudly...  
  
"I sure am. But I'm never one to rest on my laurels...never one to miss a possibly 'trade up' offer..."  
  
"Never Nasty Nell....get it? Never..."  
  
"Too busy with jailbait, I suppose. Although he is the hottest piece of ass in Lowell County, Lexy. I'd do him in a Metropolis minute. You're lucky, Lexy, so very lucky....but watch your back for Big Daddy...."  
  
Before Lex could answer Nell had disappeared, cackling...and someone was grabbing his dick.  
  
He turned around to the most gorgeous, bee stung lips and tanned face he would ever know. Within the course of twenty seconds tongues were wrapped around one another, swapping apple juice and confidence, love and loyalty, warm sticky lusty saliva...  
  
Clark was so hot. Lex nearly came with every motion of his tongue. He couldn't ruin these fifty-six hundred-dollar pants.  
  
Clark was moaning loudly, so deep into kissing Lex that he forgot he was at a semi-public gathering.  
  
"Clark....I love you and later you know we are gonna fuck each other raw...but the Mayor of Smallville is here...and County Attorney Barbara Gordon, and Judge Wallace, and Police Chief Lewis, and worse of all..my father paid to have both the Daily Planet and the National Intruder here...."  
  
"Why would he do that, Lex...oh fuck...I need you so bad...I haven't slept waiting for you to come home..."  
  
There was an odd and jarring weariness in Clark's face...something he'd never seen before...had Clark been ill? Lex thought best to leave that one alone until later...  
  
"Baby...Clark" Licking the inside of his ear, ever so close...."You know I know I want you...need you...now...but patience, baby...bear with this...this party won't last all that long..."  
  
Clark shrugged sadly...  
  
"No worries, no tears....we're together and this time, I'll never leave without you, OK?"  
  
"Yes, Lex, OK!" Hugged him so hard he nearly cracked his spine. But Lex didn't mind a bit. He loved those heavily muscled arms enveloping his small frame. Clark rubbed his head like he always did and Lex purred, nearly coming again....Clark backed away to look for his parents just in the nick of time...as...  
  
"Lex Luthor....long time no see...your father told us there would be an important announcement today regarding the future of LuthorCorp, specifically LuthorAg. Let me in on anything, Lex? C'mon...?  
  
Lex looked coldly but without malice at Perry White. White was an honest man, a hardworker as well, but far too honest...and earnest...and sincere. He was the one newspaperman Luthors couldn't buy off...  
  
"Nothing Perry...sorry...I'm sure my father will be here soon to let you all know"  
  
Perry winked at Lex..."Sure, Lex...Sure....you guys always say that..." Walked away.  
  
Clark looks at Lex who looks at Clark and looks worried.  
  
"I don't know anything about any announcement Clark..."  
  
"Lex your father is a billionaire business guy; it could be anything..."  
  
"My father is manipulative and psychotic. Cold. Heartless. Loves games. Please, Clark, hold my hand...for just a second....I think the games may have already begun..." Lex began to lose his breath...Clark grabs him, alarmed...  
  
"Lex, you can't do this in public...remember, everybody's watching...hold it together, please baby...."  
  
"OK..." panting...finds breath..."Clark just stay close until this is all over....I don't like any of this."  
  
"I'll always be right behind you. Always. Never question my presence there." Smiles a zillion-watt smile.  
  
Lex is reassured.  
  
The party commences. The Kents arrive, followed by Chloe, Pete and a colorful assortment of Smallville citizenry. There is even a smattering of Metropolis society milling about the gardens. Everything is in place. Clark & Lex hate it, but they remain discreet.  
  
Wouldn't want people to talk. People do talk, don't they.  
  
At eight-thirty, the temperature had cooled to eighty and dinner was served underneath a frilly tent lined with huge vases of white lilies.  
  
The guests, each and every one, were amazed by the spread. Imported cheese, caviar. Fine wines and non-alcoholic champagnes. Blue crab. Stone crab. Lobster. Goat cheese pizza. Petit fours. Sausage Pizza. Edible flowers. Chocolate covered strawberries, cherries, raspberries, and grapes. Four- tier sugar cookies filled with "goldschlager" cream (Golden Delights)...Fresh figs, apples, and oranges. Seared redfish served with blackened clam chowder. Lasagne. Pan-fried noodles, Caesar shrimp. Squid. Carrot cake. Garden salad. Omelets made to order.  
  
It was sickening and gluttonous and everyone chowed down.  
  
Gluttony, a deadly sin.  
  
After dinner, the entertainment began. British acid jazz/fusion band Incognito took to the stage. As their hip-hop-cum-r&b-cum-romantic smooth jazz hit the ears and hearts of the crowd, the mood swelled into an overwhelming vibe of love and connection.  
  
Clark & Lex found themselves a hollow behind the stage, just behind the swimming, smiling cherub fountain.  
  
They kissed hungrily, licking and groaning; both cocks straining to be freed of fabric, to connect to meet.  
  
Soon enough, they both knew. Soon enough.  
  
Returning from the shadows... Clark found his parents and hugged them both. Martha looked glamourous in a simple black cocktail frock and a beautiful sapphire necklace (her 10th Anniversary present). Jonathan looked snazzy in his tux. Both of them were so happy to see Clark so happy. They were still a little ancy about his health and emotional well being but something told them that in the end, at the end of the game that is, everything would turn out wonderful.  
  
Clark was a winner. Their son was a glowing winner.  
  
Lex made the rounds, dazzling guests with his quick, cynical, wry wit. He was really "on" this evening, but it was a clarified, sober "on" not the old powder-snorting snarling snob who had lorded over his father's minions. Lex Luthor was his own man. A happy man.  
  
As everyone was so caught up in meeting and greeting and enjoying themselves, it was all too understandable that no one noticed as five workmen pushed a giant-screen television onto the back of the stage.  
  
Dominic Hardwick stepped forward. Taking the microphone from vocalist Maysa Leak of Incognito...  
  
"Mr. Lionel Luthor couldn't be with us tonight. He wants, however, to express his feelings for his son via this videotape, delivered to us today from Singapore..."  
  
Lex, speaking with Mayor Takamoto, froze where he stood.  
  
Clark tensed up.  
  
Martha pulled Jonathan close. Both of them looking to Lex, then to Clark.  
  
Chloe & Pete fucked harder underneath the stage. Oblivious, as idiots almost always are...  
  
Nell Lang licked her lips...  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
BEGIN TAPE  
  
  
  
Wild hair. Smirking as always. Gigantic. 100-inches. Nell shifted in her seat...  
  
  
  
  
  
My dear Lex....  
  
I had pressing matters to attend to here in Singapore. I am terribly sorry to miss what I hear is a fabulous event. People of Smallville, and beyond, I'm sure many of you have had the opportunity to meet my son, maybe work with him. He is a superbly intelligent young man. He has made me proud. Lex, however, has one fault. He likes underage boys. I feel so horrible in revealing this here on his special day but this is my form of intervention. Lex is a pedophile. Lex raped a teenage boy. Maybe more than one. I have tapes, pictures, and documents enough to send my son to Leavenworth. But that's not what this is about. Lex needs pity. The poor thing is horribly confused. He is disturbed. Lex must be helped as best as we can help him. Pull out your hearts and help guide him to normalcy. But hide your teenage boys.  
  
The identity of the specific boy who was seduced recently will remain private. He certainly does not deserve to have his life ruined by his association with my lecherous, rapist, pedophile whore son.  
  
Lex I am so horrified at the life you have chosen. I had to do this to you. Try to make you wake up, take responsibility. You are hereby cut off from all Luthor funds. You are terminated as President of LuthorAgricultural Products Division. You no longer have access to any monies, property, holdings or extensions of either Luthor Industries nor myself. You are dead to me.  
  
Please You are sick Alexander. Help yourself. I can help you no further.  
  
Assembled guests. Give him mercy. Lend him your hearts, as I asked. Look upon the wretched fool and weep for him.  
  
END TAPE  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Not a creature was stirring...  
  
  
  
A junior serpent returns to the mic:  
  
"Mr. Luthor wants everyone to know that Lex will not be a problem in Smallville from this time hence...please continue to enjoy yourselves here at the party."  
  
Dominic slithers away. All seventy-five guests were speechless. One in particular was in a catatonic state. Clark was there in a blur. But this time It may not be fast enough. Lex's heart was still beating Perry White hangs his head, ashamed to be a journalist... But his father had broken every ounce of self-respect he had fought to build. Clark held him. Dominic hands Nell Lang her check. Held him. The crowd filled in the blank. Horror. Shock. Judgment ensued. Martha & Jonathan leaned in beside Clark...guarded him from leering eyes. Guarded him as he guarded Lex.  
  
The salad days were over. There were gnats in the caviar. Lex Luthor was gone. Only a shadow lay on the granite paving stones, tongue rolled out, eyes rolled back, silent scream. Silent roar. Silence.  
  
Silence.  
  
  
  
Pity.  
  
  
  
Love. Clark Kent loved him now more than ever.  
  
Of course, that might not matter now.  
  
Oh...how hard it is to rise above...  
  
And if and when we do...  
  
WE RISE UP SLOWLY...  
  
The Arkham Foundation was renowned the world over for their superior mental health research facilities. Based in the historic Arkham Mansion in Gotham City, the foundation had recently opened a country retreat on one thousand acres of pristine prairie, about forty miles northwest of Smallville, just outside Midvale.  
  
Arkham facilities maintained the highest levels of discretion for their clients. Many a celebrity endured a 28-day regimen behind the electrified fences. Many a wealthy industrialist found solace in the plush gyms, dining facilities, and gardens of Arkham centers.  
  
Arkham's elite new facility outside Midvale had a new celebrity guest. A quite notorious guest. Recently, this young man had become the darling of the tabloid world. His picture splashed across the headlines. He hadn't been criminally prosecuted. Twelve of the finest psychiatrists in Metropolis had signed commitment papers, along of course with his father, multi-billionaire Lionel Luthor. They had trapped him at his birthday party. He'd had a breakdown, the bald freak. They'd had to wrench him away from his "young" lover. Literally. Then said lover went bananas and tore up famed Luthor Manor.  
  
Later that night waling could be heard from the hills west of town. Two hundred dogs were rushed to the vets with broken eardrums.  
  
Purple shirts vanished from Shreck's department store.  
  
Strange, freezing winds blew through town....when the temperatures should have been in the 90s.  
  
It was all so wonderfully decadent, so tastefully lurid and tragic. It was so exciting. Smallville really was the crazy capital of the world.  
  
And Lex Luthor was known the world over.  
  
A rapist. Pedophile. Coke fiend. Bald. The ultimate post-modern psycho.  
  
Lexy baby was famous, in that most American "infamous" way.  
  
He'd joined a rather prestigious club, whose members included: O.J. Jeffy Dahmer Charlie Manson Andrea Yates Son of Sam Elmo Ted Bundy  
  
Arkham loved having him. They could raise their weekly rates 20% on the publicity alone.  
  
*****************************************************************  
  
In Smallville, scene of Lex Luthor's fall from from the lofty heights, it was as if he had never existed. People only mentioned him in the vague sense...  
  
"That demon man"  
  
"The one the Kents let get away..."  
  
"The freak"  
  
"That rapist"  
  
"That evil man"  
  
99% of these people had never even met Lex Luthor. Never even looked into his eyes. Never heard his laugh. Never been on the receiving end of that crushing cynicism...But judging is so easy, is it not? Judgment allowed the citizenry of Smallville (as it does most of us) to absolve themselves of all sins and pass the ultimate buck to someone defenseless...someone "strange"...so easy to cast someone else as 'patsy'...  
  
It was a known fact Lex Luthor wasn't the only sexual "deviant" in Smallville. Convenient it was for people to ignore Nell Lang's odd relationship with football stud Whitney Fordman. Or James Kwan's late-night visit to the high school girls working at the Tastee-Freeze...  
  
But Fordman and Kwan weren't Lex.  
  
In all honesty, Smallville had wanted to crush Lex since he arrived. For the sins of his father. For being different. For not dying that day out at Honey Creek Bridge.  
  
Of course, "that boy" was involved with that...  
  
When discussing Clark Kent, the mood in town was decidedly somber. Poor Martha. Poor Jonathan. Their son seduced by evil itself.  
  
Lord save Clark Kent. Jesus protect Clark Kent.  
  
The seedy religious fanaticism, unseen in Smallville since the 1960s, reared its ugly head in the wake of Lex's Birthday Party debacle.  
  
The guests at the party had been justly horrified by Lionel Luthor's malicious taped presentation, his murder of his son's reputation. Instead of taking this horror and blaming Lionel for such rude public display, they went home and gossiped.  
  
And gossiped. And gossiped. Bastards.  
  
The scions of 'old money' Smallville were the worst. Millicent Fordman seemed to make it a point to let everyone know about the "bald rapist..." She also made sure her son Whitney steered clear of that "wanton Kent boy..."  
  
Nothing legal had followed. Lionel inferred that he had "proof" but nothing was delivered to the Smallville Police Department. No one could prove anything. But everyone know Lex Luthor & Clark Kent had been something....other....they knew that after Lex had collapsed in the beautiful garden and Clark had stood sentry over him for ten hours; not letting anyone near him, caressing his face and whispering in his ear...  
  
Desperate for a response that wouldn't come...  
  
No, the point of what Lionel had done was never to actually imprison Lex in a jail. He opted for a much darker course of action; he would expose the only healthy relationship his son had ever known, turn it dirty, and poison his son's heart via his machinations.  
  
It was also a convenient way to expel Lex from his business. The boy had no blood instinct, no edge. He had handled that Earl situation completely wrong. All the bad press. All the rumours.  
  
Unacceptable.  
  
Lex was a necessary corporate write-off.  
  
How delicious.  
  
*********************************************************************  
  
Of course, Clark Kent didn't give a damn what anyone said or thought about his boyfriend Lex. Clark would go to school every day, then race, at one- thousand miles an hour, to the outskirts of Midvale, where he would stand a few hundred yards away from the Arkham facility, using his X-Ray vision to make sure Lex was OK.  
  
Lex was always the same. Unmoving. Eyes fixed on the picture of Clark & himself at the Palace of the Arts. That perfect day.  
  
Lex never spoke, hadn't spoken since the night of the party. Drooled all over himself. Had reverted to a infant like state.  
  
Clark hadn't slept for five weeks. He barely ate. He felt like the walking wounded, back from the front line. The entire party had been a set-up, an elaborate ruse meant to push Lex to the highest point, then drop him, devastated, into hell itself. Lex hadn't had the time to figure out why Lionel would send reporters to a birthday party. Hadn't the time to figure out why his guest list of thirty- five became seventy-five in a few short hours. Didn't see the truck delivering the big screen monitor.  
  
Lex had gotten so relaxed he'd forgotten to protect himself.  
  
Now...Clark was very worried about everything. He had aged ten years in three months.  
  
******************************************************************** In the second week of the semester, Clark finally received a call he had been eagerly awaiting. One of Lex's doctor's was willing to speak with him. Clark nervously awaited the arrival of Dr. B. Honeydeux, the foremost expert on depression and catatonic states in the region. Dr. Honeydeux met Clark at the Smallville Academy of Music; Clark wanted to meet somewhere where he could talk to the doctor without arising suspicion. No one knew Honeydeux in Smallville anyway, but Clark was paranoid about everything these days. The Academy of Music was a huge complex, with a recital hall, classrooms, and an extensive library on the second floor. The perfect place to hold an important meeting.  
  
"Mr. Kent this is both highly irregular and unethical...my discussing Mr. Luthor's case with you, that is. You are neither next of kin nor hold a power-of-attorney regarding him....  
  
Clark's expression sank.  
  
"....However, you are the boy in the picture Mr. Luthor clutches, never letting go. The only word Mr. Luthor has written during his time at Arkham is your name, Clark."  
  
Clark tried to suppress his smile, but couldn't. Lex still loved him. There was still hope.  
  
"What is going to happen from here?"  
  
"Mr. Kent....I fear Mr. Luthor might require hospitalization for the rest of his life."  
  
Oh god no... Oh please... No! Clark's heart cracked into a million green pieces...  
  
"Mr. Kent this situation is vastly different from the coma...You see, that was caused by physical damage to the body, the gunshot really ripped through him...This time, however, physically he is fine. Emotionally he is likely worse, worse than when he was suicidal."  
  
"How can I help him? I can't bear to see him this way...Please...understand...I will do anything to help him..."  
  
"Mr. Kent he is so far gone I'm not sure if anyone can bring him back. Looking through Mr. Luthor's psychological history I see eleven documented suicide attempts, numerous prescription drug addictions, a cocaine habit, alcoholism, three nervous breakdowns, the 1989 meteor incident, his mother's disappearance and presumed murder...."  
  
Clark winced at this rundown of the horrors of being Lex Luthor. A tear fell from his eyes. He might have fallen to earth from the stars but his life had been a beautiful dream compared to the life of the one he loved. Poor baby, poor Lex.  
  
Clark wished he had been there to hold him all those years, especially after his mother vanished.  
  
Too late now. I guess that he's too far-gone.  
  
No, can't think that way. You're a hero Clark Kent...you fucking are. You've got to keep breathing for him, just like you did lying in warm beds, in love and glazed with each other's sweat. He was worth breathing for then. He's worth it now.  
  
"Dr. Honeydeux...some people do recover, don't they?"  
  
"Some do, some don't." Matter-of-factly.  
  
One of the big problems I have been having is that the Arkham board, under no circumstances, will allow you to visit Mr. Luthor. In my medical opinion a visit from you might just be the medicine he needs. But of course the board is worried about your age and the entire other situation..."  
  
"I know." He thought about the 62 days he hadn't been able to hold Lex. Sex wasn't even on his mind now, although he couldn't help but miss it. 62 days of solitude. 62 days Lex was crying and he couldn't wipe the tears away. 62 days for Lex to forget him.  
  
Clark don't think that way...shut up you idiot...Damn...  
  
"There is no other situation, Doctor..." Steely gaze he picked up from Lex.  
  
"I assumed you were the one, err....the one in the 'relationship' with Mr. Luthor..."  
  
"Mr. Luthor is my best friend in the entire world and I'd bleed to death for him. That's all anyone needs to care about, sir."  
  
"I understand Mr. Kent....I understand..." Gives Clark a warm, knowing look.  
  
"Thank you." Clark tears up just a little. At least one person outside of his parents isn't judging him.  
  
"I will continue to see what I can do about getting Mr. Luthor visitors. Don't get your hopes up, though...everyone knows your face now, and everyone assumes....The board is also influenced by Lionel Luthor, I fear..." Clark notices the deeply troubled look in Dr. Honeydeux's eyes.  
  
"I know what those idiots assume. As for Lionel, he'll get-- " Clark sounds quite agitated, *bloody murder* running through his veins, heart racing as he pictures Lionel...  
  
As for the other...he's tired of reporters from the National Intruder and Metropolis Star trying to take his picture, following him into the Beanery, into school. Trying to bribe him, kiss his ass.  
  
He feels like crushing them all with his bare hands....Calm down....can't lose control.  
  
The Daily Planet has stayed out of the fray for the most part. That Perry White isn't a bad dude at all, Clark thought.  
  
Lionel...fucking evil son-of-a-bitch...Clark feels flushed....then--  
  
"Are you alright son? I lost you there for a second..."  
  
"Oh, I'm fine Doctor...I have just felt so nuts lately, ever since the party....this is all so damn tragic..."  
  
"Yes it is....I realize how stressful this all is. Especially for a boy your age. But you are amazingly mature. From the reports I read, you single handedly seem to have kept Mr. Luthor going the last year. You are quite literally his saviour, Clark. Be so very proud of the compassion you hold for him. He will need everything you've got, all your reserves, if he is to improve."  
  
Clark looked so proud at that moment.  
  
"I will continue to do my best to get you in to see Lex..." Rises to leave..."Clark...keep the faith...if this bond between you two young men is what I believe it to be, you will be together again, no matter what. In my profession, destiny often rears her head....Let the idea of destiny keep you happy, Clark. You are a mature and intelligent young man. Stay positive."  
  
They shake hands. Dr. Honeydeux exits. Clark sits down near the balcony overlooking the recital hall. He hears the gentle twang of the harpist as she practices below. It sounds like heaven. Like Lex.  
  
  
  
  
  
*********************************************************************  
  
  
  
Not so far away, all Lex sees is Clark. Hot Clark. Cold Clark. Wet, dripping Clark. Tasty Clark. Clark melting all over him. Magic and madness. Elements of Clark washing over him. Sees nothing else. Doesn't see the IV in his arm. Doesn't see the reinforced windows, the white walls, rubber floor. Just warm, tasty, wonderful Clark.....  
  
********************************************************************  
  
Martha tries to concentrate on frying the chicken. It's hard to keep the grease from bubbling over and finally she gives up, too upset to continue.  
  
I can't believe they won't let Clark see Lex...damn fools. I'm not stupid, you know. I know everyone sees a child molestation case when they look at those two. I see two great people falling in love. I don't see anything dirty whatsoever in this. Clark is the most mature and advanced teen boy I've met, bar none. Lex is sophisticated, and worldly, sure...but I honestly believe he is more of a "boy" than my Clark. Clark is the 'leader' in this relationship; he's the guardian, protector. They just won't let them be happy, will they? I should have sent Clark to that damned summer camp after the rock incident. Then he wouldn't have had to see Lex meltdown... But of course he would have been back here as soon as he'd heard the news, back in ten seconds, at Lex's side. I have never seen such devotion. Even between Jonathan and myself. It's like love from another world....*tries to elicit a chuckle* Well, she thinks, it IS otherworldly love. I mean, Clark is the most loveable man anyone could ever meet. It amazed her that it no longer bothered her that he loved a man instead of some woman. That mattered not at all. Clark beamed when Lex Luthor entered the room. Lex taught him so much, helped him develop his intellect and more importantly, Lex built Clark's confidence up. Clark had been so painfully shy and sheltered. Now he was strong inside & out. And she had never been prouder of him than when he held Lex after the fall... Still, the future was extremely uncertain...Lex was back at square one. She remembered that horrible eerie look of peace on his face...that look of resignation....that everything was over...Lionel had won....fuck Lionel Luthor! She threw a glass to the floor, shocked at her own intense feelings regarding Luthor Senior.  
  
Just then, Jonathan came in from the fields. Ironically, in the midst of all this turmoil, Kent Farms was enjoying a fantastic harvest.  
  
"Hey..." kissing her on forehead..."How's the lady in my life?"  
  
"Thinking....I screwed up the chicken...I've been so scatterbrained today. Thinking about Clark & Lex of course..."  
  
"I think about this whole thing all day as well."  
  
"Nell Lang....I just thought of that whore...Was she always for sale? Back when you were dating?"  
  
"She was a different person then, Martha." Looks down, not wanting to discuss his *evil* ex-girlfriend.  
  
"You know she's moved to Metropolis. Lana joined her there after coming back from horse camp. I can't believe it. She sold out everyone, feeding information to Lionel, all for money..."  
  
"Nell always had too much ambition."  
  
"She & Lionel have destroyed two lives, Jonathan....goddamn I could strangle her...screw them....I'm more concerned about our baby and his baby...Jon...maybe we should have let Clark take Lex away from here, like he wanted to do...I mean, Clark could protect the both of them..."  
  
"He's only sixteen, Martha! Plus, I'm not sure Lex Luthor has enough funds to get out of Smallville, much less the country..."  
  
Didn't really hear him, rambles on...."...we both know he's an adult in body & spirit, Jon...I'm not backing away from our decision to forbid Clark from using his powers to free Lex...I just don't know how long I can bear seeing Clark so anxious..."  
  
"He really is on edge..." Furrowed brow, rich with concern. "He knocked down all the streetlights on Grand Avenue..."  
  
"What? Jonathan Kent...why didn't you tell me? Goddamn...he's my son too..."  
  
"You have been so worried...I just didn't want to scare you...Clark said he went from pole to pole, twisting them, throwing them onto the pavement"  
  
"Oh my God! Damn, Jon...he might have been seen! People think that was the severe thunderstorm that knocked those lights over..."  
  
"He did it during the storm"  
  
Shaking her head wearily..."I'm not scared...I'm frightened...frightened for Clark...think of the danger he's putting himself in, knocking things over in public...dancing around in lightning during the worst storms of the year..."  
  
"I think he's trying to work out his aggressions...."  
  
"Well public displays of destruction certainly aren't the way. Perhaps we should let him play football this season then?...maybe its a good time for sports?..."  
  
"Martha-- Part of me agrees but what happens if he gets out there are starts thinking about Lex...? Imagine?"  
  
"Dear me...you're right..he needs something to focus on, though...something to occupy all his thoughts, all this pent-up anger...something to help him deal with losing Lex."  
  
"Any word on Lex's condition?"  
  
"Nothing. Clark said that nice doctor from Arkham told him it was going to be a tough road ahead...Lex might never recover from the emotional shock."  
  
"Damn." He had honestly grown to respect Lex Luthor. He even missed seeing the smirky young man around Kent Farms.  
  
"Yeah, I miss him too. I miss the way they were happy, together."  
  
Martha pursed her lips..."I just thought of something you said a second ago...Is Lex broke, Jonathan?....has Clark told you how Lex is affording Arkham?...I had heard that he was completely cut off..."  
  
"You know Clark is quite secretive about Lex's money...he's secretive about everything these days, you know...but he told me that Lex was allowed to keep all the furniture from the house, one car, and a $250,000 mental health "fund."  
  
"Mental health fund....my God....Lionel is so cruel..."  
  
"Clark says Arkham is $75,000 a month for the kind of care Lex is receiving. Clark is going to try to talk to Lex's lawyer, see if he can start selling the furniture, the car perhaps. The medical bills are going to eat up Lex's money mighty fast..."  
  
"This is horrible. Damn." Sighs..."Let me see about dinner again....if you see Clark--"  
  
"I'll have a talk with Clark...I'll try to ascertain how he's doing."  
  
"Do you think he'll ever sleep here in the house again? I miss him so much Jonathan..." tears form, falling softly.  
  
"I hope so, honey" hugging her tightly "I hope so."  
  
Jonathan Clark was so at odds with himself. Part of him wanted to give Clark permission to whisk Lex far, far away. So that they could have each other and a future. The other side of him privately cursed Lex Luthor for ever entering his son's life. Clark had been so innocent and happy. A little melancholy, sure, but every teenage boy was like that. Then came Lex. And love and drama, and suicide attempts and car crashes and defiance and insanity. All he'd wanted for Clark was a simple life, a life on the farm, perhaps university, marriage, children...normalcy. Thanks to Lex Luthor his son was a tabloid prince, a farmboy Lolita. Still, Jon couldn't think this way for very long. He'd seen how tenderly Clark cared for Lex and Lex's intense devotion to his son. He'd watched them for hours, hiding himself, as they played chess or Monopoly in the hayloft. He'd watched the look of enlightened joy on his son's face. A face so handsome, yet femininely beautiful, that when it glowed made his father's heart melt in tune.... Fuck...what to do, what to do. Must protect Clark at all costs. Must guard his secret. But must also try to find a way to help he & Lex reunite.  
  
  
  
  
  
In a plush Monte Carlo suite, an extremely attractive and elegant lady sits, briefcase handcuffed to her diamond-laced wrist, unnerved. He's never missed an appointment before, darling. He's never been one minute late. She hadn't heard anything on the news. But of course, in her world, one didn't read the paper. He said never to contact him unless she didn't hear from him by close of business, April 15th of the given year. She still had a couple months. Lex Luthor was perfectly fine...probably somewhere with that gorgeous boy of his, darling. April 15th, she thought... If you hear nothing from me Izzy... Don't do anything before then....  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The Smallville Financial Centre building opens just after Labor Day. A gala is held at the Fairview Hotel to celebrate the new tallest structure in the city. Later, high above Grand Avenue, Lionel Luthor holds court over a group of selected guests. Forced laughter. Cosmetic surgery addicts. White lines. Little nip here, little tuck there-- great philosophy as applied to life.  
  
Sequined halters, Prada....$10,000 Rothschild, but of course...  
  
How sweet it is...  
  
No one mentions Alexander. They know better than that. He's dead, for all purposes, anyway. No one is to mention him ever again.  
  
Lionel doesn't notice two cold, hazel eyes staring at him... Of course, how could he...the eyes are staring at him through six feet of concrete, from the fire stairwell.  
  
The eyes are glazed over, drugged looking. Wild. Desperate. Hands clenched. Green glow of anger.  
  
Lionel laughs as LuthorAg president Dominic Hardwick regales the guests with stories of yet another corporate takeover.  
  
The eyes are fixed on him. The Icon Is Hate. The scent of devastation wafts about our secret friend. The sickly sweet odor of revenge and avarice. Imagines fucking Lionel with his hard cock, then a chainsaw.... Gets hard. His heart races. For just a second he swears he is floating off the concrete floor.  
  
He has discovered his other half. His good half is drooling somewhere, dead to the world. Perhaps this half, the one after sunset, is safer....  
  
Later, in the plaza of the building, the security guard is horrified to see the Picasso sculpture crumpled up and battered, thrown out onto Locust Avenue.  
  
Graffiti covers the marble and granite terraces.  
  
"Clex Forever" the red and blue paint cries. "Clex Forever" "Clex Forever"  
  
More telling, to the far side of the sculpture garden is a message scrawled in blue:  
  
"Every man has his day....every man dies...you will pay for hurting him..."  
  
Foolishly, the security guard immediately calls Building Services before Lionel Luthor gets a chance to see all this. The graffiti is gone by the time Lionel descends to the ground floor. The Picasso sculpture is reported to the police...."suspected Luthor employees probably did it...they keep bitchin' about going on strike..."  
  
No one, of course, sees the blur or can hear the maniacal laugh....it's too high for humans to hear.  
  
As a result, Clark's warnings go unheeded...  
  
  
  
  
  
In late-September, Clark is finally allowed to visit Lex. It takes an enourmous amount of lying and arm twisting on the part of Dr. Honeydeux, but finally the Board decides to allow limited visitation. Dr. Honeydeux says Lex is much more responsive now. He still isn't talking but he blinks and is writing some more selected words and phrases.  
  
A visit from Clark is just what he needs, says the doctor.  
  
Of course, the real reason visitation was allowed was that nutty Lex Luthor was going to be kicked out soon anyway. His funds were rapidly being depleted and Arkham did not deal with pathetic charity cases. His fifteen minutes were up anyway. The press had moved on to the newest Washington sex scandal and serial killing. Lex Luthor was now a liability. Sure, they'd let some farm brat and his parents some see him.  
  
Hopefully, they'll take the broke bastard home with 'em.  
  
We don't do charity....we take MasterCard, Visa, Carte Blanche, and Amex, thank you!  
  
Jonathan & Martha drive Clark up to the facility. The leaves are changing. Time is passing so quickly. Jon & Martha have tried their best recently to keep Clark's spirits up, to talk to him, to give him encouragement. They do not know about the incident at the Financial Centre tower. They, like everyone else in Smallville, think it was disgruntled LuthorAg employees who destroyed that wonderful Picasso piece. Why would anyone do that?  
  
Clark looks serenely happy. There is a steely resolve there, too. And something else, but Jonathan and Martha are far too good to ever notice that... At least, not in Clark...  
  
Gigantic travertine walls and elaborate landscaped grounds protect Arkham's facility.  
  
"Bet I'd make quick work of this whole place...."  
  
Martha & Jon shoot him nervous glances.  
  
"Just kidding." Smiles that "billion dollar" smile. Tricks them quite easily.  
  
Through several wood-paneled halls the Kents' travel....Clark becoming noticeably sweaty and shaky.  
  
His nerves, Martha thinks. Poor baby.  
  
He's so excited about seeing Lex, thinks Jonathan. My son, heart as big as Texas.  
  
(I love you Mommy. I love you Daddy. Little Clark's got a brand new style...just you wait.... No one's ready for the things I can do... You always told me to surprise people... Hee, hee).  
  
When they turn the corner to go into the South Garden Wing, Clark screams in joy.  
  
The orderly looks at him like he's fucking nuts himself.  
  
Clark smiles the *scariest* toothy smile at the orderly, like he's about to eat him for lunch.  
  
Orderly conveniently finds some trash to pick up, in another wing.  
  
There it is. Room 22.  
  
"Mom, Dad...can you wait here on these benches....at least until I know if Lex knows who I am?"  
  
"Sure, honey."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
Sweaty. Tastes Lex's cum on his lips. Sees Lex's cock. Gets hard. Then soft. So easy to control these days. Control is wonderful. Hears Lex's laugh, rolling over and over and over and over. Feels dizzy but there's no meteor rocks around.  
  
Opens door.  
  
There is Lex.  
  
He rises slowly from his chair.  
  
Clark moves forward, squinting to see if Lex is really real...  
  
Lex begins to wail and weep, ecstatic with love and remembrance.  
  
Clark opens his wide arms so Lex can come home.  
  
Lex is still not talking. But Clark needs no words.  
  
"They will never hurt you again, Lex. I will make sure of that."  
  
Holds him closer. Lex moans and burrows into his love's muscles, trying to get inside him.  
  
"I'll kill them all for you. Each and every one."  
  
And Clark means it. And Lex is too crazy to care that his beautiful boy is himself on the edge. Lex is still in his own world. Lex is like jelly. Or putty. In Clark's eager, ravenous arms. Clark looks out the door at his parents. They are both crying at the wonderful scene before them. He flashes that famous smile.  
  
"Oh, Jonathan!" Martha beams.....Everything's changed; it's all going to be fine. Oh, happy days!"  
  
He kisses her on the cheek.  
  
  
  
  
  
All good mothers see only what they desire to see...  
  
  
  
...The power in the seeing is believing...  
  
...The power in dreaming is believing...  
  
....BELLE REVE...  
  
The Fairview Hotel sat at the corner of Grant Boulevard and Locust Avenue, one of the priciest intersections in Smallville. The grand hostelry, orginally built in 1939, had hosted three Senators and teen queen Debbie Gibson (once, her tour bus had broken down while headed towards Metropolis...).  
  
Whatever it lacked in celebrity stature, however, was more than compensated by the five-star service, lavish public art displays, historic architectural design, beautiful gardens and fine dining establishments. The glitterati of Smallville always spoke of the Fairview in the highest regard.  
  
Purchased by Wayne Industries in 1990, after extensive damage from the meteors, the hotel was completely renovated and expanded, and now had three hundred suites.  
  
The most palatial of these suites was the "La Encantada." Southwestern in design, it occupied the top three floors of the fifteen-story structure.  
  
La Encantada had three bedrooms, two sunken marble baths (with room for ten people, each...), three patios, a butler's pantry and kitchen, a billiard room, library, entertainment center and private concierge on call twenty- four hours daily.  
  
Tonight's guest gave the private valet the night off, however...  
  
******************************************************************  
  
School had been moronic as usual. Clark didn't talk to anyone. He barely heard what any of the teachers were saying. All he could think about was Lex. Lexy. Sexy Baby. Hardness...oh fuck, Clark thought. All I eat, sleep, think is Lex.  
  
I'm addicted! Clark chuckled.  
  
But, that wasn't such a bad thing and anything Lexian gave Clark Kent the hardest woody and the biggest smile.  
  
Lex had left a note on the bed this morning, before he snuck out to return to the Manor.  
  
"I will enchant you tonight. Fairview, seven p.m. Be there Kent. Don't go off saving somebody. I'll give you something to save....Love, A.L."  
  
Clark got sweaty just thinking about Lex, beds, hotels....Sweat-soaked linen. Ropes. Chains. Chainsaws....oohhhh, thought Clark....remembering a night not long ago at the Holiday Inn.  
  
It made him feel dirty. But he liked being a slut. Whores have more fun.  
  
Dirty Clark loved to play in the mud; hmmm...he'd never thought of that...fucking in the mud....the Manor had lots and lots of mud....  
  
Chloe and Pete couldn't understand. His Mom and Dad probably thought it was just another alien "rite of passage."  
  
None of them understood the power of the almighty Lex.  
  
Clark moaned aloud at the thought of his lover's finger, inside his mouth, in his tight ass, tracing lines down his treasure trail....ooohhhh...sticky....  
  
"Mr. Kent, if you please, what is Emerson's opinion of romantic relationships...?"  
  
Snaps back to reality...  
  
"Ummm..err...I have no, umm..idea...sorry..." Rest of class laughs...snickers...Moron Kent strikes again....  
  
Fuck ya'll. You all think you're so smart. Just you wait. Violent thoughts....swoon....I would love to throw you all off bridges. Burn you. Cut you. He should kill them all with his bare hands. Squueze them until they're blue. De-bone them like trout. Turn them into lunch supplies. Then maybe he could eat them. Bet they taste good.  
  
Naw, he can do that tomorrow.  
  
Right now, all he can think about is a cock in his mouth. Sticky.  
  
*********************************************************************** Clark races home from school. Runs up to bedroom. Martha has moved all his furniture out and has set up a desk, computer, and some potted plants.  
  
All his things are gone.  
  
"What the hell is this?" Clark exclaims.  
  
Martha, coming out of the closet, notices Clark's dismay and smiles.  
  
"Oh, honey....aliens don't sleep in the house, remember? You live in the barn now."  
  
"Oh...yeah...but it's lonely out there."  
  
"Clark...we've discussed this before...I'm not sure that we need to do that anymore..."  
  
"Damnit...well, I really don't want to anyway...I've got something new..."  
  
"I know....you're fucking Lex! I think it's so sweet...his bald head is quite sexy. I'd do him."  
  
"You knew?!?"  
  
"Honey, I didn't grow up in Smallville. I grew up in Metropolis....and I was the slut of the downtown club scene. Fuck yeah, babe...I used to be a tramp in my day. Booze, cock and coke. Only way to live." Stares wistfully out the window towards Metropolis.  
  
Clark's eyes glisten. His mom is so fucking cool.  
  
"Your father was the prude. After that whole weird Lionel experience, I guess...He made me slow down. No more Midvale orgies, no more farmhand sex classes..."  
  
"That bites."  
  
"Yeah...to this day Jonny only gives it up once a week or so. He's overworked. I keep telling him he needs Viagra..."  
  
"Nothing wrong with getting yours, Mom..."  
  
"Exactly, Clark. I'm so glad you took after me instead of Jonny. I mean, you're Dad is still hot as hell but he is just so 'straight', Clark. The man won't even go downtown on me...."  
  
"Damn, Mom....maybe you should go to that new swinger's club on Lincoln...I hear it's wild..."  
  
"I already have a membership, Clark."  
  
"Awesome."  
  
"You need to go do your homework now, babe...I left you a pizza and a six- pack in the hayloft. Also left you a carton of Magnum's from Sam's Club. I just know you're working Lexy over but good..." Pinches his ass.  
  
Clark blushes. "Damn skippy, Mom....you know me so well..."  
  
"You're my son and I love you and it's my responsibility to make sure you play safe and get off..."  
  
Clark grins.  
  
"I'm off the barn, Mom. Tell Dad I'll help him with the chores when he gets back from town..."  
  
"Sure, honey...see ya later...."  
  
Clark leaves house and goes out to barn.  
  
There, Clark's hayloft is decorated with blown-up pictures of Lex. Lex everywhere. Lex by the pool. Lex in color. Lex in b&w. Lex and Clark fucking. Lex in the bath. Lex asleep. Lex with glasses on. Clark holding Lex. Lex holding a blowtorch to Clark's skin. Clark dancing naked upon the lava beds at Lassen National Park. Lex dropping Clark off the Financial Centre skyscraper; Clark's giddy expression as he smacks on the pavement. Clark the pin cushion. Clark in the oven.  
  
They had had so many wonderful sexual adventures.  
  
Lex and Clark kissing. Lex and Clark. Sticky. Sweaty.  
  
Fuck, Clark thinks...I need one of Lex eating! Eating me. Licks lips.  
  
Clark flops down on his bed. He pulls out his cock. Begins to jerk off then stops. It's just not fun alone anymore. He's gotta get some Lex.  
  
He looks over at the alarm clock. Four-thirty.  
  
Two-and-a-half hours to go.  
  
What could Clark do for two-and-a-half hours? The he remebers he still has the stash from last week. Yea!  
  
Getting out his bong, Clark envisions tonight, all the marvelous things Lex is going to do to him. Maybe he'll blow me up again. This time, it has to be the plastique, though. Conventional weapons don't even give me a buzz anymore.  
  
First hit. Swoosh. I'm flying, yeah....baby...So glad I decided to mix the meth in here too.  
  
He looks over at the foot locker to the side of his bed. It's starting to smell real fucking bad. But where else can I put it. I don't wanna bury it because then I can't talk to him, mock him, kick him.  
  
I should have pickled it. Used that stuff from chemistry class. Then he wouldn't look all gross.  
  
I should say hello now...  
  
Opens the box. Inside is the decapitated head of Lionel Luthor. Three months old. Rotting. I really shouldn't say decapitated. Clark kinda, well....pulled it off the body. After squeezing Lionel to death with his bare hands.  
  
"Hey Lionel...guess what? Lex and I are going to fuck tonight.....What was that?....Fuck you, Lionel....that's what you said before I squeezed you....you really need to learn some manners....By the way, what the fuck did you do to my Dad, asshole?....Don't get me excited...I just might have to squeeze the answer outta you!...."  
  
Laughs happily. It's so nice to have Lionel around to talk to.  
  
Clark Kent is one happy boy.  
  
***********************************************************************  
  
He wakes up at six-thirty and freaks out. Oh shit, I'm gonna be late for Lexy!  
  
He jumps out of bed, knocking over the bong and a bottle of beer.  
  
He grabs two packs of Magnum's from the carton, gets his Camel Lights. I'm so glad Lex isn't bothered by that smoke anymore....if he has a asthma attack I'll just breathe for him! It's great to have superlungs!  
  
Lex is so damn understanding. He loves me so much.Pulls on a dirty sweater, cum stained boxers. Torn jeans.  
  
Dirty, smelly, raunchy Clark. He likes it when I look like a rentboy, a hustler. Lexy loves to lick me clean.  
  
This isn't right, Clark thinks for a fleeting second.... Ha! Yeah it is....I'm a sex-machine super alien.....  
  
Ten seconds later he's in the lobby of the Fairview. People stare. He wants to fry them with his eyes. Stop fucking looking at me, he thinks. He pulls down his zipper anf pulls out his cock. Flashes the old money scions of Lowell County.  
  
Several old ladies faint.  
  
Several old and younger men lick their lips, start to pull out their wallets.  
  
Clark just smiles. He knows he's the hottest stud for at least one hundred miles. And he's a super stud. Super bitch. He is the finest piece of ass ever to hit planet Earth and he works that fine little tush over to the glass elevator.  
  
The elevator dude drools over the living, smelly sex God before him...  
  
"Sir, may I blow you on the way to La Encantada?"  
  
Clark nods slowly...grabbing the huge bulge in his ripped, muddy, semen- drenched Levi's. "Sure."  
  
Lex doesn't mind at all. Lex lets him do whatever he wants. Elevator bitch is on his knees lapping away at the foot-long, literally gagging and drugged and dazed at the girth and power of Supercock.  
  
But poor Clark is yawning. This guy has no technique. No style. He's all mouth, no throat. Damn, I could be drinking a V-8 for this shit, Clark thinks. He lets the hungry little man keep working him, though. Charity, my Dad always says its good to give something back.  
  
He comes a little (which of course, is still "Supercum" by our lowly standards"...the guy nearly chokes to death and Clark has to vacuum his windpipe via kissing.  
  
Pathetic. But remember, Charity is good.  
  
Lying. "That was so damn hot, stud....we'll have to do it again..." Clark smirks at the guy.  
  
"That was the best experience of my life." Elevator bitch beams at Clark.  
  
Supercum. The shit is like crack. Gets 'em every time.  
  
He'll be tasting me 'till Easter. Chuckles.  
  
Ding. The elevator slows to a stop  
  
"La Encantada, sir....have a nice night." Still dazed, grinning.  
  
Clark just laughs as he exits the elevator.  
  
***********************************************************************  
  
And love walks in....  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Everything changes so abruptly, even our smelly, whorish Clark is shocked.  
  
The scene is legitimately romantic.  
  
There is a single hallway. About seventy-five feet long. Recessed pools of water fed by trickling fountains line it. There are boxes of subtle pink roses along the corridor.  
  
Soft, blue lighting.  
  
Suddenly, Clark doesn't feel so good for what he did in the elevator.  
  
Suddenly, Clark feels like he's just broken Lex's heart.  
  
"You're just a kid, Kent...kids like to have fun."  
  
There was Lex. His Lex. Looking adorable as usual. Purple suit. Wearing the diamond Clark had stolen from Tiffany's in Gotham City. He had given it to Lex for his birthday. Lex didn't know it was stolen.  
  
Clark felt dirty and guilty.  
  
"Clark....don't feel guilty...."  
  
"I just...."stammering..."...I just cheated on you with the elevator bitch...and that diamond ring is stolen...it's hot, Lex...I fucking stole it from Tiffany's...I killed the clerk there, too...(another squuezing incident)...I didn't mean too, though...but how can you stand me? I'm evil, Lex...plain evil...I'm bad"  
  
"You're testing me Kent....don't you see that? You're testing your limits with me...seeing if I'll dump you...I'll never leave you Kent...anywway, everyone has darkness...I can see you through yours...and how can I stand you.....you fucking idiot, Kent....I love you!"  
  
Lex is so confident, so in control. Lex would justify anything Clark did. Lex would be alright if Clark murdered all of Smallville. Lex would never judge him.  
  
Sees that Clark is still not getting it.  
  
"I know what nothing is, Clark, but I keep on playing."  
  
Clark looks to Lex. Needing his strength. His calm.  
  
"Clark....put your hand here, on the back of my head...."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Just do it."  
  
Clark reaches around to the back of Lex's head. Feeling around, he finds a hole the size of a bullet.  
  
"Oh fuck, Lex!"  
  
"You saved me from that, Kent....I can save you from anything now...anything...just let me..."  
  
Clark doesn't understand what is going on....at all...Why is everything so hazy and confusing? Remembers Lex shooting him with that Uzi but doesn't know anything about Lex getting shot... Weird... He begins to tremble. He doesn't want to be bad anymore.  
  
"Lex, please clean me. I've got a hole in my heart like the one you have in your head. Fill it in. Save me."  
  
"Come here, baby, please...look at you...you're all fucked up...I can help...I've been there...I've been dirty..."  
  
"I hurt, Lexy...I am acting like a complete asshole, a whore...please clean me...wash me...fill me up..."  
  
"Yes..you need to be bathed. Bathed in my love, bathed in my arms..."  
  
And suddenly they were in the downstairs bath. It was filled with rosewater and glittering dust. Clark was stripped. Lex was stripped. Together they washed each other slowly.  
  
Lex took his time, drawing the thick, wet towel up and down Clark's chest, down his back....around his balls and cock...back up again....stopping once in a while to kiss Clark, tracing his bee-stung lips with his tongue.  
  
Nothing kinky. Just loving. And wet. And wonderful.  
  
Clark was in a daze. He felt like an idiot. Why had he been so nasty lately? He had the best boyfriend in the world. Somebody who loved him even though he always smelled like cum and drank too much beer.  
  
Lex swam behind Clark and licked his left ear, tenderly.  
  
Clark moaned.  
  
Lex positioned himself directly flush to Clark's back. Clark backed up. Lex was inside him in a flash. It was so intense Clark began to gush cum.  
  
He literally came for twenty minutes. Shooting, sometimes oozing, trembling with delight the entire time. Lex was holding him tight and moaning his name into this ears, nipping and lapping at him with bubbles and hands and sweet caressing words. Clark was screaming...  
  
"Lex I love you...I want you...never leave me..stay inside me...stay hard...stay inside me forever...don't leave me, Lex....never leave me...."  
  
"I won't Clark...I promise..."  
  
Clark couldn't stop. It was the highest high he'd ever known. Lex's cock felt gigantic and all-encompassing and Clark wanted to imaple himself there in that pool of rosy slutty wondrous sweaty water forever.  
  
But he felt himself suddenly getting drowsy. And weak. Not bad weak, just tired....he slipped down in the water, his head resting next to Lex's beautiful erection. Clark licked the cock happily, inhaling its delicious scent, then fell asleep with it at his lips.  
  
Smiling that billion dollar rentboy smile.  
  
***********************************************************************  
  
Clark awoke in a cathedral. Flowers everywhere. There was Martha. There was Jonathan. Even Pete and Chloe.  
  
Seemed like every citizen of Smallville was here.  
  
Birds-of-paradise. Golden wings. Acres of hanging stars. They looked like real ones.  
  
Blinding white light.  
  
Blinding color everywhere.  
  
The most beautiful music he had ever heard. Organs. Harps. Angels. Blue globes hanging from the ceiling. His spaceship up on a pedestal.  
  
Pictures of a blue planet. Smiling beings waving in the pictures. Blood dripping from their mouths. But maybe they were just hungry...  
  
Lex, at the altar, smiling happily and warmly. Clark begins to approach the altar. The music rises. The whole scene begins to twist and contort.  
  
It is scary and such a turn-on...he's marrying Lex Luthor.  
  
He finally gets to the altar. Lex takes his hand. The officiator turns around and it is Cassandra the Psychic Grandma. Clark and Lex both smile.  
  
"I wanted you boys to know the past and present are one. Here today everything is possible, if only for today. Forever falls into one second and in that tiny snapshot of reality, you two will be lovers and friends forever. Nothing can come between you here, nothing will hurt you. Clark's powers are yours Lex; and likewise. You are unity, you are beautiful, you are fully loved."  
  
Lex and Clark look over to Martha and Jonathan, both resplendent in white and gold, both smiling and so very proud. The blue people in the pictures begin to cheer. The spaceship glows aqua blue.  
  
The entire crowd gasps as Alexandra Luthor appears from the grand golden gates....her face is so goegeous, her manner so kind...  
  
She approaches the altar, taking both Lex and Clark's hands in hers and whispering--  
  
"Nothing can touch you, not here..."  
  
Lex begins to cry. She wipes away his tears. Still whispering--  
  
"Nothing can hurt you now, Lex. You are safe here. Like Cassandra said, everything is joy and love here. Oh, how I have missed you my love. I hated to leave you but we have no choice. That choice is left to the fates, my dear Alexander. but I am here now. That is all that matters."  
  
Lex hugs his mother hard. Never wanting to let her go.  
  
Clark is so happy for Lex. He is happy about everything. The blue glow envelops him and frees him of all guilt. There is no room for guilt in the presence of love. This is our fate. Mine and Lex's. We are meant to be happy. Everything has a reason. I saved him on the bridge because we are meant to be together forever.  
  
That's why he didn't have a headstone in the graveyard...  
  
His sins are washed away.  
  
Lex loves him.  
  
Alexandra takes her place next to Martha and Jon. All three hold hands. A family.  
  
Clark has a family. Lex has a family. Everyone has a family.  
  
"Do you take this alien, Kal-El, also known as Clark Kent, to be your lawfully wedded partner?"  
  
Who was Kal-El?  
  
"Yes, always." Lex smiles at Clark. Squuezing his hand.  
  
Mist begins to float into the cathedral. Heavy, mysterious mist. Clark hears water somewhere.  
  
"Do you, Kal-El take Lex Luthor for your life partner and soulmate?"  
  
Who was Kal-El?  
  
"Sure...yes, of course" Clark/Kal answers nervously.  
  
The mists gets thicker. The music begins to fade.  
  
"I now pronounce you partners for life. You may seal it with a kiss of commitment."  
  
Cassandra, face marked with concern and love, seems to vanish into the mists...  
  
Clark is too enthralled with Lex to notice. Lex is luminesent. Glowing. All head and mouth and love. His eyes twinkle. He is all Clark. Clark is all him. Slowly, Clark leans in...slowly the crowd vanishes into the mist...blue and gold haze fades...angels fly away...blue pictures melt into the walls....This must be perfection, Clark muses...Red lights...  
  
Clark leans and leans closer and closer.  
  
Who was Kal-El?  
  
Closer....  
  
Opens his sweet mouth, ready for the soul connection; ready for bliss...  
  
Closer....  
  
  
  
Closes his eyes....tears running down his face... And there is the kiss....lips on lips....tongues dancing....tears mixing. Lex is crying and Clark is crying and they are the happiest they will ever be in any plane, in any time, in any dimension. Clark loses himself in the kiss and begins to drift off....losing consciousness as Lex strokes his face, wiping away his tears, whispering love notes in his ears.... The cathedral begins to shrink around them....filling with water....Or is that blood? Clark freaks...  
  
Lex, I'm drowning......Lex......help...oh God...don't go.....Lex I'm sinking.....I feel dark and cold, Lex....it's all changing and I'm wet.....Oh God......screaming. Lex is gone.  
  
"I'm drowning, LEEXXXXXXXXX....." Keeps swallowing blood. Crying. Lashing around in a drowned church in a fantasy world. Everything keeps shifting, blue to red....red to blue...red to blue...Dazzling....death....renewal....salvation....  
  
A planet and its sun. Doomed. And yet.... Love is lost, then found.  
  
  
  
"Hard to breathe...Lex...Lex...where are you? We're married now, baby...they can never touch us..." Dying...no one can hear him....  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Awww....poor Clark's still asleep.... ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** *****************************************************************  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Gasp of breath.  
  
Sunlight. Real. Dry.  
  
Clark opens his eyes, back in the real world.  
  
Shaking. Sweaty. Sticky. Floating about four feet above his bed.  
  
Wracked by memories.  
  
He is in his room, upstairs in the house.  
  
Kermit the Frog is staring at him.  
  
Lex? Where are you, baby?  
  
Lex is still at Arkham. Not due for release for a while more.  
  
Fuck.  
  
Clark bursts into tears. Still floating.  
  
All dreams must end, don't they...  
  
(Or do they?)  
  
Every day was a struggle for Clark Kent.  
  
A struggle to remain in control. A struggle not to cry uncontrollably. A struggle not to kill everyone who made his baby a vegetable. A struggle to wake up. A struggle to get his homework in on time. A struggle not to leave the toilet seat up. A struggle not to go back to Honey Creek and die. A struggle not to break down the walls at Arkham and rescue Lex.  
  
He just waited and waited for the day when he could scream.... AT LONG LAST, LEX! You're back...with me!  
  
That day still hadn't come...  
  
He had seen him four times now. Each time Lex clung to him like a lost child, like a mushroom on a log, like Spanish moss trying to avoid the treacherous fall to sizzling pavement. Clark would hold him for hours. Just sitting there. Nothing said. Nothing done. Everything said. Everything made real.  
  
He treasured his moments with Lex. But how long would this last. Lex was mumbling now, but still incoherently. He wrote letters to Clark; scrawled with crayons on notebook paper....  
  
I luuuv you Klark.,....youi;re theb bes t est guy....I luuvun you  
  
It hurt so much for Clark to read Lex's scribblings. Here was a man who previously had written one thousand page research papers on Biochemistry. Here was a guy who had hobnobbed with Kings and Presidents. Here was the guy who had helped Clark to make an "A" in history. The smartest fucking dude he'd ever met. His boyfriend. No longer. No longer did he talk to Clark of the galaxies, of stolen elections, of corporate debauchery. No, now he only wanted to communicate the most basic of emotions to Clark. Need. Love. Friendship. In a twisted way, it was the simplest, easiest phase of their relationship yet. The simple look of happiness on Lex's face made Clark feel as if he needed nothing else in the world.  
  
The Arkham administrators had warned Clark on his most recent trip. Mr. Luthor had only a few weeks left before he would be turned out. He would then be placed in a State facility. Clark shuddered. Lex certainly didn't belong in some dank, pestilent State asylum. Lex needed to be somewhere warm. Loving. Where people cared.  
  
Lex would come to Kent Farms.  
  
Clark knew Martha & Jonathan would be all right with the idea. They had been so amazingly supportive. He appreciated everything they had tried to do to help he & Lex.  
  
Often he was worried, though, about the changes in his personality. He knew he'd become abrasive, even violent. His parents had no idea how far this had gone.  
  
And they still didn't know about the dream. That horrifyingly 'beautiful' dream...  
  
Other dreams, too...death dreams. Green glow. Clogged arteries. Cancer. These made Clark cry. He would eventually be all alone. And the world itself would be dead and airless....  
  
Still, Clark managed to function. He somehow got to school, albeit late. He somehow got through class, although his grades were a nightmare. He hadn't talked to Chloe or Pete in forever. Their nonchalant, selfish attitude at the party had showed him they just weren't the same anymore.  
  
Of course, neither was Clark.  
  
Every night, he had visions of murdering Lionel Luthor. And Nell. And often, himself. And the entire world. In these dark dreams, only Lex's arrival would quash his urge to hunt down and gut all the people who had hurt them. Lex was his link to stability. To sanity. He so missed Lex's mouth on his. The way Lex reassured him he was good in bed. Lex's body molded to his. The way they stuck together after a sweaty romp. Lex's wise study tips. The way Lex read the newspaper. His keen fashion sense..."Stay away from flannel, Kent...you're too *pretty* to wear flannel every day..."  
  
Lex was just so damn smart and so perfect for Clark Kent.  
  
In a few weeks he would bring his baby out of that place and into his safe place, his Fortress. There, no one, and he meant no one, could ever touch them.  
  
***********************************************************************  
  
  
  
  
  
Jonathan Kent drove up the driveway to the house. As he turned off the car, he found himself feeling terribly weary and anxious. The last few months had been among the most trying of his life. First, he finds out Clark is Lex Luthor's boyfriend. Then both Lex and Clark nearly die, nearly destroy one another because of their love. Then Lex's father destroys him. Now Clark is so distant. Jonathan remembers. Remembers how close they were. Clark confided everything in him. His first wet dream. His first crush, Lana Lang. His secret powers...my poor boy...he was so scared of them...Now, Jon doesn't even know if Clark has attained more power. Jon doesn't see Clark much. He's always in the hayloft. Or gone, somewhere. Martha thinks Clark hasn't slept at all in months. Look at his face. Look how he's aged. Clark, for the first time, doesn't seem to need Jonathan anymore. He seems grown. But there is something else there, a hardness. He noticed it after the party. Clark seems colder. Clark seems capable of-- No, his son could never hurt anything or anyone. Sure, he'd hurt those streetlights. Sure, he'd taken out his aggression on Whitney Fordman's truck. But Clark could never hurt anyone. I still want to have a talk with him, though...try to figure out how he's coping.  
  
Jonathan walks into the barn, looks upward towards the loft. Clark is sitting on the edge of the doorway. Blank. Staring at the sunset. I hope this is a good time, Jonathan mutters silently.  
  
"Hey there, son!"  
  
Clark just looks at him. Not hot, not cold. Bloodless.  
  
"Hi there, Dad."  
  
"How are things? How's school? We haven't talked since, well, a couple weeks."  
  
"We talk all the time. At dinner." Glares at him.  
  
"I mean a real, deep chat about how you're feeling, son. Not small talk."  
  
"I don't want to talk about how I'm feeling. I know how I'm feeling. I feel like shit."  
  
"Son, don't talk like that. We didn't raise you to use that language."  
  
"Sorry, I guess."  
  
"I guess? Damn, Clark...why are you angry with me?"  
  
"I'm not angry with you. In fact I love you and Mom so much it hurts. I'm just scared. Without Lex... I'm just scared."  
  
"I know you both lean on each other."  
  
"Lean, love, learn, everything. It's like we're cut from the same freak cloth. We are. He's my missing link. Without him I might as well be dead."  
  
"Do not say things like that, kiddo. Please. You're gonna give me a heart attack!"  
  
Slowly, as if in a trance..."You're gonna have o--"  
  
Clark stops himself. In several of his dreams, his father dies of a massive coronary. Dies on the front lawn. Clark too late to save him. Martha collapsing with grief. There were allusions to this during his visits to Cassandra as well. He winces at the thought of losing his father. He can't go there now. He can't imagine losing Lex and his Dad. His father, who has loved him, clothed him, played ball with him, hugged him. One of the best men he's ever known.  
  
You've got to be a pretty good damn guy to adopt a nude, mute alien infant.  
  
He prays, silently, that God or whoever keeps his Dad alive. Damn Cassandra. Dead whore. I wish I had never seen her. She just complicated things even more. She and her flea market palmistry.  
  
Returning from his thoughts:  
  
"What I meant Dad is you work too hard...Let me do more around here. Please. I should do more anyway. I've been so lazy lately."  
  
"Son, I have completely understood why you've felt lethargic. Who wouldn't? It took me a long time, but I do legitimately understand the depth of your love for Lex Luthor. And I support it. And I want things to work out."  
  
Clark feels warm for the first time in days. He looks at his father lovingly.  
  
"Thank you so much. You don't know how much that means to hear you say it."  
  
"I mean it Clark. Your mother and I have been trying to figure out if we could help Lex find a good, cheap facility once the funds for Arkham dry up...which will be pretty soon, right?"  
  
"Yes." Clark's faced filled with concern...."He's got until just before Christmas."  
  
"Smallville doesn't have many mental health places. There's the Pavilion at Mercy Hospital, the Willow Grove Rehab, and the Smallville State Asylum. That's all I know of."  
  
"I'm not gonna let him go to any of those places!"  
  
"Clark. Think about this, please. He still needs help. He is nowhere close to being healthy."  
  
"Oh, I'm all too aware of that, damnit." The coldness again.  
  
"Son, don't get angry. I'm just trying to help."  
  
Clark realizes he has been curt. "Sorry...I just...I've already come up with a solution. Lex is coming to live here, with me."  
  
"Here?"  
  
"Yes, he's coming here. And please don't fight me, Dad. He is coming here. I love him and I am the only medicine that will bring him completely back. I'm the only one who can protect him, fight for him."  
  
"He needs 'round the clock care, son. You've got school."  
  
"I know that, Jonathan. I asked you not to fight me. Do you listen? Fuck!"  
  
Jonathan backs up a little. Clark has turned red, but it's not the cute little boy blush he's known for years. It's anger. Almost hate.  
  
"Clark...OK...Lex can come here when Arkham sends him out...that's around December 20th...you'll be on Christmas break..."  
  
"Exactly, Jonathan...and after Christmas break we'll do what we have to to make sure Lex is taken care of....that's really all that needs to be said."  
  
Jonathan is taken aback at the impersonality of his son's demeanor. Never has Clark spoken to him this way. Part of him is proud of his son's strength but some part of him is deeply worried. Deeply worried.  
  
"Clark...we've resolved that...is there anything else you need to talk about?"  
  
"Nope." Blank stare again.  
  
"You sure?" Gently. "Have there been anymore 'incidents'? Like the streetlights?"  
  
Clark glares menacingly at his father. Baring teeth. Growling...  
  
"Are you accusing me of terrorizing this fucking town, Dad? Are you? Believe me, I have enough problems without fucking with Happy Smallville. OK? Damn."  
  
Clark gets louder...louder...looks like he could smack Jonathan out of the loft, all the way to China...Shaking, hair standing up....  
  
"Is that what you think of me? Crazy Clark? Gay Crazy Clark? I love this--- I save half this motherfucking town and then you get in my face and accuse me of terrorizing it. What a fucking joke." Laughs. Sweats.  
  
Jonathan does not recognize this person. Clark is scaring himself.  
  
Jonathan decides this is a good time to go to the house and hang out with Martha. He thinks it's not the best time to screw with his super teenage son.  
  
"Clark, please don't yell. I love you more than life itself, son. I would die for you and you know that. So would your mother. We just want to protect you. Teenagers make mistakes; sometimes all of us get too emotional and do stupid things. I just want you to be careful. I just want you to talk to me if you need to."  
  
"Dad....I don't want to screw up...please....understand that. All I want is Lex. He'll make everything good again."  
  
"I know son. I understand. If I was separated from your mother I'd feel a little nuts too..."  
  
"Exactly, Dad. Exactly."  
  
"Well..." hugs Clark hard, kisses him on forehead. Notices Clark is clammy but doesn't say anything...."I love you, boy....you know I'm here for you whenever you need me."  
  
"I know, Dad. And I appreciate it. I really do." Smiles genuinely.  
  
"See you at dinner? About an hour...."  
  
"Sure."  
  
Jonathan climbs back down the stairs. He feels better and worse. Clark is very emotional and that he can validate. But still there is the unnerving sense that something inside his son has broken. He hopes whatever it is can be patched up.  
  
Martha's making chicken and dumplings. Damn, can that woman cook a bird!  
  
Jonathan smiles....everything will be OK, just like Martha always says...  
  
Up in the hayloft, Clark sobs. He feels terrible for speaking to his father in such a manner. He hates himself for being such a prick. His father just wants to help him.  
  
The little voices just make Clark feel so evil. So dirty. So vengeful. Please stop, little voices. Please. Oh Lex, please come and lobotomize me. Clark makes a desperate plea to the stars, now rising, to help him stay good.  
  
***********************************************************************  
  
  
  
  
  
Near Midvale, inside the Arkham facility, Lex Luthor is desperate as well. He is much better than the doctor's know. Problem is, he can't express what he's thinking. For some reason, he can't speak much and can't write anything but baby talk. Lex wonders if he's had a stroke of some sort. This is the kind of thing that happens to stroke victims. He constantly worries about Clark. His lover is so strong and tough, but he's still a child emotionally. He fears what changes may have overcome Clark. So much has happened. Fuck, he didn't mean to lose control. He certainly never meant to leave Clark behind. At the party, it was all just too much. Checkmate. Lionel finally won. The shock of the exposure of he & Clark's love, in such a demeaning and demented manner, just destroyed all the power in Lex's reserves. But goddamn, it shouldn't have! Why wasn't his love for Clark enough to get his through?  
  
Perhaps I don't love him as much as he loves me?  
  
Twice now, I have been the one to abandon him. He has never tried to leave me. Fuck, he tried to join me after I shot myself. My sweet baby Clark tried to poison himself with those rocks to get with me.  
  
Goddamn, his love for me is so deep it's an ocean. And I feel like I'm a dry wash. For him. Would he be better off without me? Could he love someone more than me?  
  
These questions have always been there. But now, they seem more relevant. I will not destroy my beautiful Clark. He is young and is rich with promise. Not to mention he is the sexiest fucking man alive. I will not drag him with me. I don't want to die now...hell no, if anything I've got to make Lionel pay. And that whore Nell. But I don't want Clark to see my darkness. I'm going to have to get dirty to enact my revenge. I'm going to have to re- apply for my Demons. They will have to accompany as I ruin my father. I don't want Clark to see how evil I can be. He saw only the good parts. He brought them out into a garden and watered them and held them and made them flower. I will always be grateful for that. But... I cannot be demon Lex and hold on to a living angel. I just can't hurt him that way.  
  
Oh, fuck it. I can't lose him, either. I love Clark Kent too much.  
  
Will to power. Will to power. I will get better and and get out of here. I will get to Clark.  
  
Got to get to Clark.  
  
***********************************************************************  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Clark walked along Locust Avenue towards the Galleria mall. He hadn't been downtown in a few days, not since the night when the bells of the Smallville Cathedral were stolen.  
  
"Must've been that crazy priest they had....Father Joe...the drunk....the one who stole the church fund...yeah...." --The opinion of the average citizen  
  
Idiots, thought Clark.  
  
Father Joe was drunk at a bar in Gotham that night. The bells were hidden nicely under fifty feet of prime dirt at the Smallville Botanical Gardens.  
  
He liked to take things and bury them. Nice symbolism. They had taken from him. Now, he would take.  
  
Lots of missing kitties in town. Doggies too. Lots of stolen cars. Televisions. Newspaper boxes.  
  
The Chuck E. Cheese had been looted. Someone stole all the candy from Walgreen's. Weird. Hee, hee.  
  
Sometimes he liked to 'shake' things up.  
  
Seismologists from Metropolis had been called in last week to find out how an earthquake, registering 4.0 on the Richter scale, had struck downtown Smallville. Nothing was severely damaged. No one died. That wasn't the point. There wasn't an active fault for 400 miles.  
  
Of course, Clark Kent wasn't a geological phenomenon. There would have been no quake if Clark hadn't been walking by the Smallville Newsstand and seen those terrible tabloids with Lex on the covers:  
  
"SMALLVILLE BOY LOVER DROOLS TO AVOID PROSECUTION" "'SEXY LEXY A VEGETABLE'! METROPOLIS SOCIETY SET SHOCKED" "FALLEN HEIR, RAPIST HIDES OUT AT MENTAL COUNTRY CLUB" "LIONEL PROCLAIMS: HE'S NOT MY PROBLEM!" "LEX LUTHOR'S FALL FROM GRACE" "JUST WHO WAS THE 'FARMBOY LOLITA'?"  
  
Beneath one of the headlines was a photo of Lex, obviously taken illegally and covertly; Lex in the Arkham gardens, wheelchair bound, head rolled back, tears running down his face... Clark trembled and began to retch...  
  
No one does this to the man I love....  
  
He went into the alley behind the First National Bank building and spontaneously began to smack his ahead against the concrete pavement. He did this for six hours. Didn't even bruise. Even he was amazed that the ground moved.  
  
They'd never figure it out, of course. And it wouldn't have happened. If the bastards hadn't hurt his baby.  
  
He remembered what his father said once. "You are here to do good." And Clark still wanted to do good. He really did. But until he got Lex back, good was going to be hard to do.  
  
He really did need to stop shooting himself every day with his Dad's pistol. That probably wasn't good for his clothes...His Mom would see the bullet holes and powder marks sooner or later... ***********************************************************************  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Lex began to plan. This would actually work to his advantage. Everyone here thought he was a vegetable. Let them think that. LuthorCorp. was a very complicated entity. When Lex had been in Metropolis, the company had undergone a massive financial restructuring. The result of which were massive amounts of debt. This debt existed mostly in the form of junk bonds and lines of credit. Acquire the lines of credit. Get the junk. Will to power. Destroy LuthorCorp. Will to power. Destroy Lionel. Lex's mind raced as he began thinking figures. He knew everyone on the board. Knew all of their secrets. Lionel wasn't as smart as he thought he was. Lex had dirt on everybody. he just had to pick and choose where to dig. LuthorCorp. kept many of its documents regarding the debt at the First of Metropolis Bank branch in downtown Smallville. Lionel claimed it was cheaper to keep them out there. But Lex knew he was scared to keep them in Metropolis. So many enemies there. So many competitors.  
  
He could speak coherently now. He could walk without freaking out. He was almost back. He had to get all the way back. The doctors were amazed at the sudden turnaround. Lex told them it was the hand of God.  
  
Yeah, right. It was all Lex. Will to motherfucking power, people.  
  
He could feel Clark out there. Crying for him. Needing him. Clark was fading away without him.  
  
Lex would be out in ten days. He had two goals. Kiss Clark Kent for twenty- four hours straight. Bring down the House of Luthor. Money wise, he couldn't do anything until April 15th. That was gold day. Lottery day. She had specific instructions. For his own protection. April 1st, he could take the documents from First of Metropolis. Get to Izzy. Get to Zurich, get in touch with all his foreign contacts. On the 15th he'd have enough cash to assume the debt, sink the stock price, and ruin/save/chop up Lionel Luthor's extensive holdings. As for Nell, well, it's called the bottom of Metropolis Bay. Concrete sneakers. She'd fucking hurt Clark bad. She'd betrayed Lex. Concrete shoes for the tramp. No more nice Lexy. Only nice with Clark. The rest of the world had better watch the fuck out. Damn right. Lex was back. Just then one of the orderlies entered with apple juice. Lex threw his head back and began to moan. The orderly looked at him pityingly.  
  
Have to keep the act up until I get out.  
  
Oh, Clark...we're going to have it all...everything. Love and riches, the best of both worlds. I'll buy back the Manor after Lionel loses it to the bank. I'll move your parents in, give them the world. Give you the universe. I'll do anything. We will never suffer. We will have our side of paradise.  
  
We will never be unhappy again. I promise.  
  
********************************************************************  
  
  
  
  
  
Martha decided it would be nice for she and Clark to spend some time together before Christmas. Lex couldn't have visitors in his last week so Martha decided two days in Greenmont would be fun.  
  
Jonathan decided not to go. He needed to repair the tractor and winterize the barn & house. Plus, he really wanted Clark to spend some quality time with his mother. They hadn't had much time to talk lately. Clark was kinda upset, but Jon promised him, come spring, all three of them would go to Six Flags in Metropolis. Clark beamed at the thought of Six Flags.  
  
Still a little boy, Jonathan thought, smiling.  
  
Greenmont was a wonderful little village about two hours west of Smallville. Untouched by the meteors and Smallville's post-meteor economic boom, the little hamlet was leafy and green, bustling only with antique hunters and Bed & Breakfasts. It was also home to Greenmont College, Martha's alma mater. She had loved her time at Greenmont. It was an East Coast-style red brick liberal arts haven, an island of liberalism in a very conservative state. She wanted Clark to see it so he could start planning for the future. Clark seemed very interested, for one because Greenmont had a famous astronomy department and one of the finest observatory complexes in the Midwest. It was the first time she had seen Clark so happy and relaxed in forever. She realized this was in part because Lex would be coming to Kent Farms in a few short days but Clark was truly interested in seeing Greenmont.  
  
Driving west from Smallville, Clark looked out the windows at all the endless fields of winter wheat. It had been a mild winter thus far and he had his window down. He loved feeling the rush of air around him. Martha glanced at him and winked. He winked back. Maybe things were finally getting better.  
  
He envisioned Lex & himself dancing through those fields. Naked and lit by the stars, regardless of season. Dancing and kissing and falling all over one another. Falling and just lying there, staring into each other's soul. Licking at each other's noses, sniffing at each other, drowning in the wonderful ardor and lust that comes only with love. Happy. God, Clark thought, will we ever be able to have that feeling for longer than a few days? Or will another tragedy arise and break us down...  
  
All Clark truly wanted was to love Lex.  
  
What a simple request, he thought. He didn't want to be rich. He didn't care about looks or status.  
  
His love for Lex was self-love. His love for Lex was redemption. Just thinking about Lex had kept him from doing any damage to Smallville lately.  
  
As long as he had Lex those evil voices would stay away. Keep thinking that, Clark. Stay in control. Think of Lex and hope. Hope. Hope is positive. Lex will be inside me and make me shake with pleasure. Soon. Soon.  
  
About twenty miles before Greenmont, the terrain turned hilly and forested. Clark thought it was beautiful. Smallville was very attractive, but nothing like this. There was a huge lake, actual pine trees, and big cliffs and ridges. Martha explained that in the winter the undergraduates came to this area to cross-country ski and ice skate.  
  
He would love to ice-skate with Lex. He could imagine the two of them, dancing figure eights around each other, breath misty and warm, laughing, kissing and sharing warmth. Hot chocolate. Sex and hot chocolate. Clark desperately tried to hide his sudden hard-on.  
  
Then there was Greenmont. Tiny, lying in a valley about two thousand feet higher than Smallville. It really was cute, thought Clark. They pulled up to the Three Pigs Inn. Two-story motel that looked like something out of Grimm Brothers' tales. Campy and cozy.  
  
Over dinner at the Big Bad Wolf Bar & Grill, Martha and Clark enjoyed each other's company...  
  
"I know you're excited about Lex coming home, Clark."  
  
"Mom, it's gonna be the best. You'll see. Lex loves you too..."  
  
Martha blushed. Lex had become a part of the family.  
  
"You know, Clark, you're going to need to move a bed into the loft for Lex to sleep in."  
  
"I hadn't even thought of that. I guess...umm...I assumed he'd sleep with me."  
  
"I'd thought that too, to be honest, but maybe he'll want some space...you know...since he'll just be getting out of Arkham." Looks at him with concern...  
  
"I get it....and I think you're right...he may need space. I'll pull the mattress and frame out of the attic; the one that used to be in the guest bedroom....I can put that to the left of my desk in the loft."  
  
"Perfect, Clark. We must do everything to let Lex know he's got his own space in our space. Remember, he's used to a mansion and servants and gigantic everything. It might be a shock for him, our modest little farm..."  
  
"Yeah...it's gonna be weird without all his money. But Lex loves me, he won't need the money."  
  
"I believe that too, Clark. When Lex looks at you, there is such regard there, such care. Such tender respect. It's as if he looks up to you."  
  
"I know I look up to him, Mom. That's why it's so strong. We both need each other to make the other feel good. Feel wanted. Feel handsome. Feel human....please, don't take that the wrong way. You and Dad are great. I'm so sorry I've been a jerk lately. I mean, I've done some shit---"  
  
Feels bad for cursing in front of his mother. Damn, Clark, where are your manners? Moron.  
  
"--Sorry, Mom..." blushing.  
  
"Clark, kiddo, we all curse...just try not to do it often, sweetie." Smiling warmly at her son. He's so grown yet so childlike. He can still be hurt. That scares her. He's still not fully prepared for the true evils in this world. The Lionels. The Nells.  
  
Eating a mouthful of spaghetti...."Mom...what should I get Lex for Christmas?"  
  
"Don't talk with your mouth full Clark..."  
  
"Sorry..." Grins brightly...sauce dribbles down his chin...  
  
"Sweetie...I thought maybe a locket on a chain would be perfect. Maybe even engraved. Something he could wear and always have a part of you with him."  
  
"Great idea, Mom."  
  
"There's a great little place on the square here in Greenmont....Joske & Sons...they sell silver, platinum, gold...lockets, rings, all kinds of stuff...family-owned, charming little spot....I got my college ring there..."  
  
"That cool one with the horse head on it?"  
  
"Yes, Clark. The horse head is the emblem of Greenmont."  
  
"Awesome, Mom....Can we go there tomorrow?"  
  
"Of course, right after we take the campus tour."  
  
"I love you, Mom. You make me happy."  
  
"Every moment I spend with you Clark, even if I'm yelling at you to wash your clothes or take a shower, is the best moment of my life."  
  
They lean across the table for a warm, loving hug.  
  
***********************************************************************  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Lex was released on Winter Solstice. (That should have been a sign, perhaps....of things to come...ahhh, to be narrator, unable to interfere...)  
  
Anyway, Lex was released. After six hours of paperwork and final exams. Arkham wanted to make sure Lex was in good shape so he couldn't try to sue them.  
  
Lex was still putting on an act up until he saw Clark.  
  
Walking out of the Administrator's office, Lex moved slowly, like he was drugged. He smiled a goofy, fake smile at the orderly holding the door. He continued moving slowly, dragging his feet, looking around for the Kent's truck.  
  
And then there was a blur of light and a scent he'd dreamed of. The scent of Clark. Clean, sweaty, delicious farm boy. His delicious Clark. The blur whizzed around him, almost making him nauseous. Then he was picked up off the ground and whisked into the truck.  
  
"Couldn't let you get cold out there, Lex." White, gorgeous teeth.  
  
Lex nearly fainted. His Clark. His wonderful, healthy looking, tan, studly man. Lex was just stunned for a minute and honestly, literally couldn't speak. He was actually back here with Clark.  
  
"Hold me...." Lex began to tremble, unable to believe he was actually with Clark. "Always," Clark replied...pulling Lex into him, onto him, within him. Merging his heart into Lex's soul.  
  
Clark was glad the Kents had allowed him to pick up Lex solo.  
  
Lex felt so emotionally wasted yet more fulfilled than ever before. he was home. He was with Clark.  
  
"Things are gonna be better than ever, Lex. I'll never let them hurt you now. Do you believe me?"  
  
"I'd believe anything you say, Clark. You could lie to my face and I'd swear on it in court."  
  
Oh, fuck. This is real. Clark's heart raced. His cock stiffened. His entire aura ablaze in passion and adoration.  
  
Lex furrowed deeper, opening Clark's flannel shirt, placing his right ear next to Clark's heart. like he's always done.  
  
Lex began to lick at Clark's chest, finding the nipples and ravishing them with teeth. Clark loved it hard, forceful...it took so much force for him to feel anything....Lex knew just how to make it hurt good.... "Fuck me, Clark...please...get inside me...I'm so empty...Make me whole...please...God, Clark...all I've thought about is your...working me over....weighing me down, licking my face--"  
  
Clark flips Lex over on the seat. They don't need to worry about a crowd watching because the windows are already fogged .up like San Francisco Bay. Tongues meet, hungrier than ever. Lex is trying to eat Clark apart. Clark twists Lex into a crazy position, so hard, so fucking ready to pound the love of his life...  
  
"In me. Now...please...baby; I need it...Clark...fuck me..."  
  
Clark gladly enters Lex. Lex screams out, tears running down his face. Harder and Harder. Better than ever. Both Lex and Clark are crying and kissing and sweating. Clark fucks him so hard Lex hurts...but it's the tasty pain.  
  
Clark's face is so intent; he looks more driven than Lex has ever seen him. This is no boy fucking him. This is all masculine, hung, wonderful man. Lex moans and moans. Clark 'sings.'  
  
They come together, Clark screaming so loud the left window cracks.  
  
Clark comes so copiously Lex drinks it like wine for ten minutes post....  
  
They haven't even begun, really. This could (and will) go on for days. The beauty and passion of true, young love.  
  
"Your heart and mine. Together. Beating until the sun explodes. Until the last clock ticks. Until love itself shrivels and dies."  
  
"Yes, Lex. Forever"  
  
"You and I were always meant to be. No matter the problems, the goddamn issues and trials....we will always be...that much I know..."  
  
Both of them were halfway out of their clothes. Both disheveled. Clark's huge mop of silky black hair all over his head, sticky, cute, wonderful.  
  
Clark reached over Lex to open the glove compartment.  
  
"I've got something for you, baby."  
  
Lex furrowed his brow. Smirking.  
  
"You just gave me a hell of a lot, Kent. I'm still swallowing."  
  
"You're sick, man." Laughing. Takes locket and chain out of glove, starts to lower it over Lex's head.  
  
"Whoa Kent, don't get kink on me..."  
  
"Lex...this is my Christmas gift to you. It will protect you."  
  
The locket was 18-karat gold. A perfectly symmetrical heart. About 2 inches in diameter. Lex beamed as Clark's big hands had trouble opening it.  
  
"Here, let me, Clark..."  
  
Lex opened it...stared for a minute...a tear falling from his eye.  
  
Inside the locket was a picture of Clark. Smiling that fabulous toothy grin. Hair all over head. Beautiful and young and forever good. Scrawled in Clark's messy handwriting were the words:  
  
"At Long Last, Lex...We Are Together...And will Always Be" Love, Clark K.  
  
Lex began to cry, tears heavenly joy.  
  
This was real.  
  
Closing the locket, he felt strong hands wiping his tears away.  
  
"I don't have anything to give you, Clark."  
  
"Yes you do...you give it to me every time you enter a room...yourself, Lex...you give me your heart and your respect and your knowledge and your body...Those are the best gifts anyone can give anyone else..."  
  
They snuggle tightly. From afar they would look to be one human being.  
  
"Right now, I could stay just like this. Just holding you. You pinching my nips....I feel so good, Lex..."  
  
They begin to soul kiss once more. Intertwined. Swapping souls. Learning, once more, how to feel comfortable. How to experience pure exhalation.  
  
The like of a love like theirs is not often seen. So much pain in it, so much fucking pain. Yet stronger and more colorful and more honorable than a thousand other loves.  
  
For just a second Lex thinks about explaining his plan, the Izzy thing, LuthorCorp., all that...but instead keeps kissing Clark. For just a second Clark considers telling Lex about all the depression he's been feeling, the darkness, some of the terrible things he's done...  
  
But there's no need. Not now. Now is love time.  
  
Kissing. Holding. Inside. Wet Mouth. Taste. Arched back. Nibbled elbow. Slick. Come. Together.  
  
And so they stayed that way. For six hours. In the truck. Didn't need the heat on. Clark provided more than enough. Lex was so spent; he still had so much work to do. Clark was still in a state of disbelief, but the voices were gone...  
  
While Clark and Lex slept that night, they floated, just a few feet off the bed. Lex, cradled in Clark's arms like a foundling babe, thought he was dreaming and snuggled back onto Clark. Clark just smiled, unaware...  
  
Love with Lex Luthor was more fun than floating anyhow...  
  
In these moments, the world was good to these two hurt souls; fate smiled upon them.  
  
In these moments, Clark Kent and Lex Luthor could feel completely at ease. They could feel safe.  
  
  
  
In these moments. And sometimes, short moments are enough....  
  
But uncertainty breeds pain...  
  
And I have no compass And I have no map And I have no reasons No reasons to get back  
  
And I have no religion And I don't know what's what And I don't know the limit-- The limit of what we've got...  
  
Don't worry baby It'll be alright You've got the right shoes To get you through the night  
  
It's cold outside Brightly lit Skip the subway Let's go to the overground  
  
Get your head out of the mud, baby  
  
Flowers in the mud, baby Overground...  
  
  
  
***********************************************************************  
  
Clark Kent loved sausage pizza. He could eat it every day if his Mom would let him. Tonight he was enjoying deep dish from Corleone's. Extra-large of course, smothered in big, thick, juicy Mozzarella, Provolone, Parmesan, Marinara, and pig. Clark always ate so fucking much. This evening he was ravenous. He'd already downed a dozen cheese sticks. Two gallons of iced tea. And now he was moving on to the greasy, dreamy Super Sausage Supreme Pizza.  
  
Lex Luthor just stared at his beautifully gluttonous lover. Eyes fixed on Clark's mouth. Chewy goodness. Big lips covered with sauce. Hungry.  
  
Damn, he's beautiful. Clark gives Lex the patented "goofy" grin. Brilliant and dazzling as always. Lex can't stand Sausage Pizza. He doesn't really like pizza at all. He ate a Caesar Salad. Clark wants to feed him some pizza, though. He wants to play with his food. Lex is all too willing. He'd let Clark pour hot wax on him to make him happy. Anything for his Clark.  
  
Clark pulls a huge slice of pizza out of the cardboard box. It is still hot. Steamy.  
  
"Get naked, Lex. Take it all off. It's feeding time." Clark grins seductively.  
  
"Anything for cheese, baby...."  
  
Lex is nude. In a blur, so is Clark.  
  
Clark holds the slice in this huge hand, dangling it in the air. He takes the crust end and bites into it. Holding the remainder of the slice in his palm, he begins to lean in towards Lex.  
  
Lex closes his eyes and opens his mouth wide, moaning. He feels the tip of the slice enter his mouth. It tastes wonderful. Especially since he doesn't even like Sausage Pizza. He feels as Clark eats his portion, moving closer and closer.  
  
Clark moves slowly. Chewing but by bit, savoring the taste of pizza and the ever-closer scent of sexy Lexy.  
  
Lex is so hard and anxious he wants Clark to speed up. Clark starts to rub Lex's beautiful baldness, massaging his scalp and the back of his neck. All the while chewing towards Lex.  
  
Lex begins to chew faster. The slice is nearly gone. He can feel the vibrations from Clark's lips, his tongue. One huge piece of sausage lies between them. They bite into it in unison. Then only the taste of each other. Clark finishes the remainder of the pizza lingering in Lex's mouth. Lex is lost in this, as Clark rolls his tongue over every inch of Lex's...searching his gums, teeth, the back of his throat for any trace of sauce.  
  
Lex moans, Clark grabbing, stroking his cock. Clark leaning over and spitting down, lubricating both himself and Lex, warm saliva...yummy sausage...  
  
Lex opens his eyes to find Clark shifting under him. His eyes, pleading. His body touched by a light sweat. Hard as a rock. Foot-long masterpiece on private display. Just for Lex.  
  
"Please....inside...umm....Lex...please...Oh fuck, man....now..."  
  
"Of course, Clark....If I could I'd be in you day and night....But first...I need to kiss that yard stick between your legs..."  
  
Lex falls upon Clark's cock. Takes as much of it as possible. Lex knows how to give head. Damn straight. Clark is moaning, grabbing at Lex's shoulders, beginning to pull legs back...  
  
Lex makes eye contact with Clark. Clark's eyes are rolling around in his head; he looks feverish and so fucking hot. Lex licks the head, rolling it around in his mouth....Clark just throws his head back...  
  
"I fucking love you Lex Luthor!.." Panting..."...do me...NOW!"  
  
Clark pulls Lex directly on top of him. It is Lex's turn to ravish his boy's mouth. He licks and bites and attacks his tongue and cheeks. He finds the hot spots on the boy's neck and goes bananas, trying to damnedest to make Clark cry in happiness.  
  
Which he does. Because he's got hard, bald, pizza-tinged Lex crushing him with pure, raw lust. And love, too.  
  
As Lex pushes inside, Clark simply smiles...breathless. Imagine if we could always stay this way, Lex? Imagine.  
  
Clark is adorable, getting fucked and so relaxed. The look on his face is one of ultimate meditation, ultimate contemplation, and devout sincerity.  
  
The Dalai Lama would be damn proud.  
  
Lex moved deliberately, slowly. Clark clenching around him, pulling him in far as humanly possible...Clark of course, wants him to get even deeper. But Lex knows how to make him float.  
  
And float they do. Clark begins to ascend. Lex, fucking him, barely notices. He's gotten used to it. Clark begins to moan. Everything is airy and wonderful and so real. Lex inside him and nothing but warm space holding them both above ground.  
  
As Clark gets close, they rise higher and higher. Lex is so lost in Clark's tight ass he doesn't notice he's near the ceiling.  
  
For the first time, Clark controls the floating. Concentrating on the bed, on lying in it, Lex holding him...wanting to be "down"....they begin to descend...although it takes a few minutes as Clark has to concentrate quite intently. They reach the bed again just as Lex floods him with seed. Clark pulls Lex as far in as possible; bald love god shuddering and moaning Clark's name.  
  
Clark slides down sweaty, spent Lex and licks up the cum that still leaks from Lex's cock. He then returns to Lex's gaping mouth...together they share the rich protein shake.  
  
"I love you, Clark." "I love you, Lex."  
  
The awesome power of the Clex.  
  
Lex and Clark kiss for hours. Holding. Thinking about the future. Clark mostly thinks about his new power....floating, sinking....this has to lead to....wow.....This would make what he has planned for Lionel much, much easier...  
  
Lex thinks about his plan to destroy LuthorCorp.  
  
As usual, Lex goes to sleep long before Clark. Clark worries about Lex's health. At Arkham, he had been on a rigid steroid cocktail to subdue the asthma attacks.  
  
Lex refused to take neither any steroids nor a prescription when he left Arkham. Clark was a little scared. He knew he could always suck the phlegm out of Lex and clear his passages but what of Lex were alone?  
  
This was the scariest remaining fear in his life. What happens if Lex is alone and can't breathe?  
  
Clark wishes he could shake this fear. But it lingers, like a shadowy dream.  
  
*****************************************************************  
  
  
  
  
  
Christmas had come and gone. Two days 'till New Years. These were the best of times, that's for damn sure. Clark and Lex, at the Farm, together in their Fortress of Love. Martha and Jonathan had helped Clark to set up a bed, desk, and shelves for Lex in the barn, but it was a waste of time. Lex spent every minute with Clark. They read together. They played cards. They sat by the fireplace and held each other.  
  
Lex was teaching Clark to play the piano.  
  
Clark was teaching Lex how to build snowmen.  
  
The weather had finally turned seasonal. Temperatures in the twenties. About half a foot of snow on the ground. If anything, the arrival of snow and ice made everything warmer for the young lovers. Holding each other, their love and its fire could battle back the even armies of Jack Frost.  
  
Everyday since Lex had arrived they took a bath. There was an old copper tank basin in the barn, connected to the hot water heater. Jonathan used to use it to relax in, ease the pain of old football injuries. Now, Lex and Clark lay in it for hours. Making love. Making bubbles. Drenching each other with clean water, absolving both of them of all dark thoughts...at least the public ones.  
  
Martha and Jonathan were amazed at the change in Clark. He had returned to being the polite, kind, trusting son they had raised. He didn't get upset anymore, nor curse, nor raise his voice. They weren't finding kitty bones outside the barn anymore. No more porn videos stuffed under the corn trough. No more crack pipes. Candy wrappers. Condoms.  
  
They both exhaled giant sighs of relief. Our little boy has his boyfriend back. We can rest easy...  
  
***********************************************************************  
  
Lex and Clark never went into town. There was no need. Martha got them any groceries they might need. They had no use for television, DVD rentals, magazines (no newsstand, ever again, thought Clark...I'll never let him see those horrible pictures, headlines).  
  
Since Clark was on Christmas Break until January 10th, they had days upon days just to love one another.  
  
Three days prior to New Years, Jon & Martha drove into Metropolis, where they planned to spend a romantic New Year's at the palatial Emerald City Hotel and Resort, the city's newest and most glamourous upscale hotel. They had left Clark and Lex alone because they trusted them. They knew Clark wouldn't let anything bad happen. They knew their son was good.  
  
Over lunch the day before New Years, the thirty-first of December, Clark and Lex pondered the future:  
  
"Clark...don't eat so fast...enjoy your food..." Laughing...  
  
Clark, mouth stuffed with two pieces of toast, a slice of bacon and a boiled egg, grins...  
  
"I can't help it Lex...." muffled but understandable..."I'm still growing."  
  
"I know. You're up to nearly 6'5"."  
  
"I'm a giant, Lex." Billion dollar boy smile.  
  
"You're my baby giant, Kent." Leans over table and kisses Clark on lips.  
  
"I'd love to go fuck in the snow, Lex. Please?"  
  
"Yeah...sure...as long as I get to be bitch...You keep me warmer that way...let me finish the paper first...."  
  
Clark notices Lex is reading the Metropolis Business Banner.  
  
"I thought you gave up the business junk, Lexy. I mean, it's not like you have anything left."  
  
Deception. Lex hates to lie to Clark. But he must protect him.  
  
"Oh, sometimes I just get wistful for the past, Clark. You know? On rare occasions I miss being rich and powerful. Do you understand?"  
  
"Yeah, sure. It's like if I was short all of the sudden...I would miss being tall." Smiles.  
  
Goddamn the way he loves me. Completely trusting. Cannot hurt him.  
  
"You were made to be tall, lover...you were made to eat more food than anyone else yet never get fat. Your body was made for fucking and loving and made to be adored by all..."  
  
Clark blushes. "Lex, I'm nothing special. I'm just your boyfriend. And all my body is good for is loving you. My body can't love anyone else. Not now."  
  
"Mine either. If I lost you--"  
  
"Never! Don't even think it, Lex! We've come past all that bullshit now...we're gonna soar now, baby!"  
  
Clark looks so hopeful. Lex's wishes he was. After April 15th...everything will be fine.  
  
Looks Clark straight in the eye...  
  
"Don't worry about losing me, Kent. My fire is alive. And stronger than ever before."  
  
"My fire's alive too Lex...can we go fuck now? Please....I'm so hard I'm about to pop..."  
  
"How romantic, babe..." Smirks.  
  
"You know I am the most romantic kid on the block, Lex. But I also love to fuck. Isn't that the perfect mix?"  
  
"Hell yeah."  
  
"Well?"  
  
Lex gets up from his side of the table, walks over to Clark and sits on his lap. Clark moans on contact.  
  
"Carry me outside and fuck me silly, you big giant."  
  
"With pleasure, Lex.....oh...man, did you ever think it would be so great?"  
  
"Yes, I had every thought we'd be fucking outside in the snow at your parents house on the eve of the greatest year of our lives."  
  
"Liar."  
  
"Goofy Giant."  
  
And so Clark carried Lex outside where on a dry patch of rich earth they came together, warm from the glow of our alien super stud and his magic. Lex so taken by Clark's body and spirit and emotional joy he never noticed it was quite literally 18 degrees Fahrenheit.  
  
So is the power of love...  
  
***********************************************************************  
  
New Years Day.  
  
Lex and Clark had toasted each other with sparkling white grape juice. They then proceeded to pour the juice all over one another and spent the next three hours licking it up.  
  
It was so natural. They felt like nothing had ever gone wrong. Like nothing could ever change from here on out.  
  
The lovers finally crashed out just before dawn.  
  
Lex nestled into Clark's ripped chest, his hand clutching his lover's cock. Clark's arms wrapped around Lex's waist, holding him. Protection.  
  
Clark was not fully asleep yet. I'll never let you fall, Lex. He looked at Lex's peaceful face. No pain there anymore. The golden dome of his skull, the pearl beauty of his flawless skin. The eyelashes, the rare hair, touched by reddish gold. Lex's breathing was a little ragged. Clark used the X-ray vision trick to do the usual lung check-up. Look, Clark, those are Lex's lungs...where his life is so fragile...God, I wish I could get him new lungs. But I'm no surgeon.... Still, maybe somebody out there doesn't need theirs... Things looked OK, but not great. Fuck me, Clark thought. I shouldn't have had him out in that snow. He can't get sick. I have to keep him warm.  
  
Damn, Kent....stay in control.  
  
Poor, fragile Lexy....he has to have one hundred percent Clark. I can't play Psycho Clark...not now that he's home....he can't have me fucking around, putting him at risk. Clark trembles just a little. Control is a hard thing to maintain.  
  
Fuck it....I will do whatever it takes to protect Lex and my parents, and myself.  
  
...Clark has a little something planned. But that's better left unsaid for now.  
  
  
  
**********************************************************************  
  
  
  
In Lex's dream that night, he and Clark are flying.  
  
...Somewhere in the Caribbean, maybe south Florida. Lex can't tell. It doesn't matter. Different places. Soft and hard. Pastels. Clark in a banana yellow thong....Margaritas....Pink sand covering their sweat soaked bodies. Then, Clark taking his hand and rising skyward over the blue sea. Maybe Montserrat... Clark and Lex in a casino; Lex winking at a navy-clad Clark. Pimped out. Gold chains. Felling each other up under the table. Boca Raton, perhaps. Golf courses. Huge, swaying coconut palms. Clark climbs the trees naked, then flies down, huge arms filled with sweet fruit. Clark stuffs Lex's mouth with a slice of mango, juice dribbling down Lex's face. Clark leans in and slowly laps it up, meeting Lex's mouth and just holding there... Pink sand...coral...maybe Bermuda...green waters... Clark and Lex on horseback, racing through coral springs...running over emerald valleys, lost in a slow mambo somewhere in Havana. Snorkeling, Clark breathing for him, the two of them diving to depths unseen by common men. Diving thousands of feet into beauty, where Mermaids hawk their wares and Lobster run schools for blind starfish. And stars, thousands and thousands, hang above their little boat. Maybe Trinidad. The soft breeze pushing them towards daylight. The purple sky opening into pink. Pink into orange. The muses smile at them. Lex smiles back. Orange into yellow. Flying again. The soft Latin beat pulsing around them. Mexico. More green and blue and reds. And water.... Fierce winds blow in around the flying lovers, they are tossed and thrown...across continents, parallel dimensions, time and destruction prey on them...hungry...but Clark just draws Lex into him, under him, protection...and together they ride out the tribulations of Hurricane Country...  
  
Their love is the strongest on earth.  
  
And just before Lex wakes up, the scene is lush and pink again...the storms have passed. Clark is nude and glowing, lying halfway on a hammock, tied to gently scented Eucalyptus. Smile gracing his face. The palms bow as if to say hello. Or goodbye......  
  
Lex awakes and Clark is gone.  
  
**********************************************************************  
  
Clark had to get out, even if it's just the fields. He has to think this out. He has to find a way to make his plan work without involving Lex.  
  
He really isn't as strong as he pretends. He's weaker than ever. His lungs looked OK, but not good.  
  
Goddamn...there was no way he would lose him now.  
  
Clark knew what he had to do. Phase one was already under construction, in the storm cellar. No reason for anyone to know. Especially Lex.  
  
He hated even the idea of deceiving Lex. But this would be something to help everyone. He'd understand why Clark had to hide it. He loved him. He'd forgive Clark anything.  
  
  
  
Even killing his father.  
  
*********************************************************************  
  
January. Gone in a flash...  
  
Clark returned to school. Lex and Martha started working on a business plan for the farm. Lex was of great assistance to her. He knew all kinds of inventive ways for the Kents to stay in the black and still expand.  
  
He helped her to develop a college savings plan for Clark. He helped with many things...  
  
"You've only got $5,000 saved for Clark's college bills? That won't even pay for room & board at Metropolis University! And Greenmont...you're talking twenty thousand a year at least."  
  
"Lex, I know...but it's just been so hard the last few years. The past six months was the first time I can remember us not teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Jonathan and I have always hoped Clark could get scholarships, maybe athletic something...I mean, you know what I mean... Lex, if we let him...he' be the fastest runner on earth."  
  
All those unsaid "secrets" Lex knew. So funny how everyone knew now. And they protected them. Because they all loved Clark so much.  
  
"Mrs. Kent--"  
  
"Lex, I told you, call me Martha. You're virtually married to my son...."  
  
Married to Clark. Fuck, wouldn't that be perfection...Lex's mind drifts to thoughts of flowers and pink sand and honeymooning....  
  
"Lex?"  
  
Back in the real world...."Yes...Martha...OK...if you let me take half of Clark's fund, I promise I will turn it into $10,000 by years end..."  
  
"Jonathan and I will have to discuss it, Lex. But I trust you. I know you will do anything to help Clark."  
  
"Of course I would. If I were still rich, Clark could go anywhere in the world he wanted. Anywhere."  
  
Martha feels bad for Lex. She realizes life without money must be a kind of torture for him.  
  
"Lex...are you doing OK? I mean, without the money?"  
  
"Sure...I just miss the cars and thousand dollar shoes and strippers...." Smirks. Martha punches him on the shoulder, playfully.  
  
"None of that, young man. You're holding my Clark's heart in your hands."  
  
"And he's holding mine, Mrs. Ke...err, Martha....he's holding mine..."  
  
**********************************************************************  
  
LuthorCorp. opened its new Smallville regional headquarters in the First of Metropolis Tower on February 1st.  
  
Metropolis' city fathers had cussed and screamed that Lionel was trying to move thousands of jobs out of the city; and yes, he was doing just that.  
  
It was cheaper and easier to rob, cheat, and steal in Smallville. It was easier to pollute in Smallville. It was better to hide secrets in Smallville.  
  
Clark Kent was there as Lionel Luthor cut the glossy red ribbon. He growled aloud as Lionel, Dominic and the other Luthor executives toasted each other's successes.  
  
The First of Metropolis Tower, recently completed, had been called the Smallville Financial Centre. But First of Metropolis (FofM), sensing the growing clout of Smallville, decided to open a back-office in the city, and leased fifteen floors. LuthorCorp and FofM were the only two tenants.  
  
Lucky Lionel. There had been distinct talk that SocietyBank of Metropolis, lender on the tower, was just about to foreclose due to lack of leasing activity and horrific, mysterious cost overruns.  
  
Clark Kent, dressed in a janitor's uniform, slowly walked about the lobby of the tower. He had been here several times, of course, but this time he was planning. He had to make sure everything was perfect.  
  
He didn't want to hurt anyone. He wanted to make sure he knew how to turn on the life saving systems....fire, water, smoke detection.  
  
"I will be here on the fifteenth, Lee, to make sure all the arrangements are straight regarding the line of credit."  
  
"Of course, Mr. Luthor, we should have the board's approval by then."  
  
March 15th. Things would happen sooner than expected.  
  
He just wanted to gut Lionel Luthor. Make him bleed. Let him gasp the way his poor son did.  
  
He walked towards the golden doors for the FofM customer branch. At the far end of the bank there was a gigantic vault, filled with notes, bonds, and a little gold. Since FofM had gobbled up most local Smallville banks, it had the largest amount of deposits in in Lowell County. It also held massive amounts of LuthorCorp. Bonds and debt.  
  
Clark wished for a moment things were different. This really was a beautiful place. The architect, Araldo Cossutta, had based the design on an aborted plan somewhere in Texas. Dallas, perhaps? (Clark had run to Dallas once, after a fight with his parents...he'd stopped running in the shadow of a gigantic green argon-lit skyscraper and nearly had a breakdown, thinking it was meteor rocks....that was the last time he'd run that far...) Anyway...Lex had told him all about it. Anyway, the tower was red granite, nearly pink, with bronzed tinted windows....Five Hundred-sixty feet of elegance reaching towards the sky. Fountains and sculptures. It reminded Clark of Luthor Manor. The Conservatory. Lotus Court. Clark felt guilty for destroying the Picasso. Of course, now they had a Matisse sculpture out on the plaza...was everything disposable to these people? He could imagine eating steak dinner in this lobby, he and Lex decked out and all gussied up...all upscale and happy and soft lighting; dancing to slow jazz on the marvelous rooftop of the tower; the entire bejeweled Lowell Valley at their feet...  
  
But Clark couldn't live in dreams. People like Lionel would never let them live that way.  
  
Places Lex loved so much. Places which had defined Lex. His mother's plants. He hoped Lionel hadn't killed Lex's mother's plants.  
  
The bastard had probably stopped having them watered, let them shrivel and gasp and die.  
  
He must die too.  
  
*******************************************************************  
  
February.  
  
Lex had gotten a little job at the Smallville Farmer's Co-operative. Jonathan had pulled every favor he knew so that Lex could work there. The memory of the party, the tabloids, Lionel's tape was still fresh in the minds of most Smallville residents.  
  
Jonathan Kent was a man of his word, though. Never told a lie. If he said the guy--  
  
(Bald, freak pedophile...Jon....he seduced your boy, Clark! Well, Jonny never was too bright...sure could throw a ball, though...hee, hee...and that freak Clark...well, Jon sure found him on the side of the road....)  
  
--Was a good accountant, we'll hire him.  
  
But stick him in the back. Don't want to scare the women and children.  
  
Lex got his first check on Valentine's Day. He got back to Kent Farms and told Clark to get dressed...  
  
"We're going someplace special, kiddo..."  
  
"Alright, Lex. I know if it's a place you like, I'll like it too..."  
  
Lex blushed. Almost as much as Clark always did.  
  
They held hands and kissed affectionately.  
  
Lex drove the old pickup to a tiny alley off South Locust. Clark could smell rich, appetizing food from somewhere...But he couldn't see the restaurant. Lex took his hand and led him into the alley. Then down a tiny flight of stone steps. There, on the door, was the word: L'Etoile  
  
"The Star, Clark...that's what they call this place....and since you're my star, you're gonna love it."  
  
Clark smiled and pecked Lex on the cheek.  
  
L' Etoile had about ten tables. Tiny kitchen in the rear. Bunches of simple flowers tastefully arranged about the place. The sidewalls were painted blue at the floor level, then turning yellow as once rose towards the ceiling; orange to purple at the trim; the ceiling was a night sky, painted with hundreds of twinkling, friendly stars. Some had faces. All were happy to see out blissful lovers.  
  
An attractive older lady came out from the kitchen to their table.  
  
"Bonjour, les enfants..." laughs heartily...."Just kidding. I know you two aren't children. You two are lovers. Only lovers come here. And how beautiful you are."  
  
"Great to see you, Aurora. Long time."  
  
"Yes, Lex Luthor, very long time. You only come here when you are happy."  
  
"Exactly. And I am happier now than I ever was. Aurora, I'd like you to meet Clark. He's the one."  
  
"Yes...I can tell...such kind eyes...strong jaw...like something from another place, another time...."  
  
Clark blushes; embarrassed into silence...  
  
"Oh, but this one has the fire, Lex Luthor...it's there...look closely...he's no boy...."  
  
Clark speaks, at last:  
  
"Oh. I'm not that fiery...I leave that stuff to Lex. But it is great to meet you, Aurora. This place is cool."  
  
"Cool...of course it is....you see, my restaurant is simple and I serve good food. People don't come here to be seen. They come here to see their lover. Watch them enjoy my onion soup. Which, by the way, I shall deliver in just a moment..."  
  
"Thank you so much, Aurora."  
  
"It's nothing, Mr. Luthor...oh, would you like the usual spirits?"  
  
"I gave it up, Aurora. No sauce for me."  
  
"Sacrebleu!" Laughing."..this one really is love. He has that look, Lex Luthor. He will change your life...."  
  
"He already has. He already has." Squeezes Clark's thigh under table. Clark just looks at him, dazed and spellbound and lost in pure delight.  
  
Tear in Lex's eye. This is the apex.  
  
***********************************************************************  
  
February passed into March. Their love remained strong.  
  
Lex was at work one day when he got a strange phone call.  
  
"Smallville Farm Co-op Accounting office...how can I help you?"  
  
"Let me speak with Mr. Lex Luthor."  
  
"This is Lex Luthor."  
  
"Lex, this is Carrington Loew with the CarringtonTrust in Metropolis. How are you?"  
  
Carrington Loew was once a close friend. He had dropped him, like all the others, after the scandal broke.  
  
"I'm fine. Why are you calling me, Cary?"  
  
"I've got some insider information on LuthorCorp. Serious stuff, Lexy. Thought you might want to meet one day and talk about it."  
  
"I know everything I need to know about LuthorCorp, Loew....why are you really calling me? Did my father put you up to this?"  
  
Long silence.  
  
"No, Lex, he didn't. He doesn't even talk about you. It's as if you never were born."  
  
That was worse than him putting Loew up to this. Never were born. It sent sharp pains through his spine and heart. He suddenly had trouble breathing.  
  
"Lexy...are you there, guy?"  
  
Catching his breath...."Sure...look Loew....I'm sorry I accused you it's just...I don't want anything to do with LuthorCorp...OK?  
  
"Look, Lex...I know things have been all fucked up...but you gotta get back in the game. I couldn't believe it when they told me you were working at a fruit stand..."  
  
"It's not a fruit stand, Loew. It's the largest wholesale vegetable buying organization in Lowell County."  
  
"Fruit Stand. I stand corrected. You need to be a big player again, get back out there with the sharks."  
  
"I got bitten a few too many times, Cary. But listen, I appreciate this--"  
  
"Listen...I know about the feelers you've been putting out regarding LuthorCorp. debt...."  
  
Lex is shocked.  
  
""Don't worry...nobody knows...I only know because I have some business in Zurich and all the buzz there was about "Clark Kent", mysterious billionaire who was quietly purchasing Luthor debt. Clark is that kid's name, right?"  
  
"Yes." Fuck.  
  
"Don't worry, Lexy...I'll tell you this, though....there's things about Clark Kent that are outta this world!....you should give S.T.A.R. Labs a call; you know, they track those freaks.....I'm glad everything is still hidden. Gives me a chance to get in on some of that debt too. When this all goes public, LuthorInternational will be a gold mine; domestically it will be ruined. Your father will be destroyed. His American holdings are so leveraged they will wipe out the foreign ones. Leaving the healthy parts of LuthorCorp/LuthorInternational for the picking....fucking gorgeous, isn't it? Lexy?"  
  
"When are you coming to Smallville, Loew?"  
  
"The fifteenth, Lexy. I'm going to the LuthorCorp. Finance office to do some research. Lionel's gonna be in town, you know. He's gonna try to convince the board of FofM to let him borrow $3 billion more..."  
  
Lionel....indebted to hell. How hilarious. How I would love to see his face as he loses everything. I want him to know who is bringing him down. Control.  
  
"How about we meet that day? We certainly need to talk."  
  
"I agree."  
  
"Ten o'clock at the First Metropolis Building. The new one. On Locust and Grand."  
  
"I know it....$350 million dollar boondoggle."  
  
"Tallest building between Metropolis and Denver." Laughing. Plotting.  
  
He'd have to borrow Jonathan's pistol. Make sure it was loaded.  
  
"See you the fifteenth, Lexy." Carrington Loew hangs up.  
  
Lex shakes. He's never killed anyone before. But now he'd have to. Loew would fuck up everything. If he'd found out about Lex using the name "Clark Kent" to deposit funds in Zurich, how long before he traced those funds to Isabel?  
  
And what the hell did he mean about Clark? That was really fucking strange....And scary...  
  
S.T.A.R.....My God...what did they know about Clark? About us? My father gives S.T.A.R. millions in grant funds every year...  
  
They will cut him open. Or try to. That would kill the Kents.  
  
This is all too much....breathe...  
  
Lex had to change the game.  
  
And he had to get that pistol.  
  
*********************************************************************** Murder. Easier thought than carried it. It was making the air thin.  
  
That night, Lex had an awful asthma attack. The worst since he left Arkham. Lex couldn't catch his breath for nearly a half hour. He began to turn blue. Clark, listening to his Walkman, didn't notice until he felt Lex grabbing at his t-shirt, eyes bulging, gasping like a goldfish pulled from his bowl...  
  
"Oh, shit...Lex....open your mouth...try, baby...try..." Gasping. "Here I am....I'm gonna breathe for you." Clark is calm. Lex is shaking. Clark lovingly, professionally, with ease and precision, leans in, holding Lex's head at the right angle so be can blow fresh oxygen into his lungs... Clark slowly inhales, then exhales to keep Lex's lungs from giving up. Lex's eyes. Such weariness. Pain. Clark's calm vanishes. He cries the entire time because Lex's eyes were wide open and so full of fear. Lex looked scared. Like something dark and awful was looking back at him. Clark concentrated and concentrated. He would be Lex's lungs, Lex's heart. Eventually Lex found sleep. Clark never slept. He held him tight; his ear at Lex's chest....making sure everything kept ticking.  
  
Clark x-rayed his lungs and saw massive scarring, striations here and there. The heart itself also was scarred. The asthma attacks were getting dangerous. Clark had to do something.  
  
***********************************************************************  
  
He whistled as he walked the streets of Central Smallville.  
  
Soon, everything would truly be wrapped up. He had to clear the air for his love.  
  
In a few days, he was going to take the thorn out of Lex's paw forever.  
  
He stopped at 901 Grand Avenue and turned his gaze upwards. The tower loomed. Clark hated to do what he must. But it had to come down.  
  
He should have done it sooner. But things were so good at home. Lex is having trouble breathing again. Stress. Stress is straining his body. Wearing him out. Killing him. Lex can't have stress in his life. I must take it away.  
  
Maybe he could dig some of the trees up and save them. They didn't deserve to die.  
  
It would all happen quickly. And painlessly for all involved, save Lionel.  
  
***********************************************************************  
  
Martha Kent was heartened by the grade report. Clark had made 2 'A's, 4 'B's and 1 'C." Things seemed to be settling down, completely.  
  
Now we just gotta get you back on the honor roll, kiddo.  
  
Martha was too happy about the improvement in his grades to notice Clark disappearing down into the storm cellar.  
  
She was too happy to notice him coming out with a strange looking assortment of wires and small boxes. Fuses and detonators. Among the items Martha & Jonathan never knew Clark stole.  
  
By the time she did turn around to look out into the garden, Clark was speeding at five hundred miles an hour; downtown by the time she paused to pick a daffodil.  
  
Clark stashed the bomb materials in a hold he had punched into the ground, just to the rear of the Garden Entrance to the First of Metropolis Tower. Clark knew no one had seen him. He was too quick even for cameras to pick up. He smiled eerily to himself. Something in him continued to say--  
  
Stop Clark! This isn't the way!  
  
But Clark ignored his voice of reason. He listened to his passion voice. His guardian's song. His innate need to watch over Lex, no matter the cost.  
  
The area was crowded with workers and shoppers. Clark knew, if things worked as he hoped, there would be minimal damage to the Galleria two blocks away. City Hall and the Civic Center, the Academy of Music, the Smallville Art Collection, the Beanery, were all within three blocks of here.  
  
He prayed that only this tower would be destroyed. But whatever happened, happened.  
  
Anything for Lex.  
  
He punched a hole into the underground parking garage. There, on level six, he left the first surprise. Rushing up the fire stairs, he planted the second device directly behind the bank vault. Rushing to the roof, he placed the third, most powerful device just below the roof.  
  
The entire thing should crumble to the ground. Lionel will be here for the meeting. The bank branch is usually empty that time of morning. The arcade of shops and the sculpture garden aren't open 'till noon.  
  
Everything is falling into place.  
  
By noon tomorrow, First of Metropolis Tower will be dust. And Lionel will be crushed, pulverized underneath it.  
  
This is the ultimate way to show Lex I will do anything for him. I love you, baby.  
  
***********************************************************************  
  
  
  
Dinner that night was special. Martha had made seven-layer lasagna. Jonathan was very tired but in good spirits. It was planting season again, and the spring had been frosty this far, endangering the young sprouts. It was supposed to warm up in the second half of March, however, so Jon looked towards the future with optimism. Lex and Clark sat next to one another, as always. They were the mirror image of the couple across from them, save fifteen years or so.  
  
It was a talkative and light-hearted meal. Lex and Jonathan talked politics. Martha helped Clark with his geometry homework. Played with his wild hair.  
  
Lex smiled at everyone. Clark smiled at everyone.  
  
They were a family. Things were finally as they ought to have been.  
  
The best things never last.  
  
That night, after Jon, Lex, and Martha had played a spirited round of Monopoly, Lex came upstairs to find Clark, already naked, sprawled on the bed, arms warm and open...  
  
"Come on home, baby..."  
  
"Anytime, Kent."  
  
Clark took him in as always. And the sex that night was just as tender as always. It was always so groundbreaking. Like they were always jumping off the highest peaks simply to land on another peak. There were no valleys in a love like theirs.  
  
Only heights. Glorious, godly, golden heights.  
  
After fucking and kissing and the usual joy, Lex passed out. His breathing was calm, though, and Clark sneaked away for just a second. He went to the barn door, opened it slightly (there was still a chill to the March air...)  
  
There, on eastern horizon, was the skyline of Central Smallville. Standing sentinel over it all was Lionel's baby, the First of Metropolis Tower.  
  
Glowing gold as well; the result of $200,000 decorative lights.  
  
After tomorrow, that beacon of hate would glow no more. Clark glanced over to sleeping, serene Lex and knew he was doing the right thing.  
  
Anything for my baby.  
  
Farewell to Lionel and his golden tower.  
  
*****************************************************************  
  
The Ides began rather warm and humid. The weather should have worried everyone. It was far too soon in the year for sixty-three degree mornings.  
  
A warm front, the strongest of the season thus far, had pushed northward all the way from the Gulf of Mexico, warming the Midwest into early spring.  
  
The front had arrived overnight. Sometimes life happens quickly.  
  
But Jonathan was happy. At these temperatures, he could get much work done. Martha was glad because it meant she could go downtown and pick up the book she had ordered at Tesmacher & Co.  
  
Clark was glad but a tad worried. Along with warm weather came a stiff southeastern breeze. That could blow debris all over downtown....Fuck....  
  
Can't stop it now...  
  
Lex was in an odd mood. He was very unsure of the wisdom of meeting with Carrington Loew. He had his own plan for ruining LuthorCorp. But he was worried that plan would be endangered if he didn't throw Loew off course. And if Loew wouldn't leave the game, Lex would make him.  
  
Jonathan hit the fields at five.  
  
Martha would sleep until eight this morning.  
  
Clark the same.  
  
Lex silently, stealthily moved out from under his beautiful Clark. Kissing him on the forehead. He crept down the stairs. Out of the barn. To the tool shed. There, in a locked case, under an old chicken coop, Jon & Martha kept an "emergency pistol."  
  
He'd stolen the key last night while Jon & Martha were fucking in the bathroom.  
  
He felt horrible but Loew could destroy all of them  
  
("there's things about Clark Kent that are outta this world ....")  
  
S.T.A.R.  
  
No one would hurt his Clark. Nor the Kents. They were the closest things he'd ever had to parents. Lex would do whatever he had to.  
  
Lex went back up to the hayloft. He had written Clark the note. He hid it under the telescope by the outer doors. Lex dressed quickly. Subtle black suit, sunglasses, simple. Simple. None of this was simple. But he had to think, collect himself before the meeting with Loew.  
  
He leaned over Clark....for once, baby...enjoy your sleep. It was the most relaxed he'd seen Clark ever sleep. Lex knew Clark stood watch over him. Once he'd woken up and caught Clark x- raying his chest.... He loved him for wanting him to be healthy. He loved him for everything.  
  
He kissed Clark on the lips, ever so gently. Traced those sharp, one-of-a-kind cheekbones. Ran his index finger through that lustrous hair, the shade of midnight.  
  
The sun was rising. Gun wrapped tight in his briefcase. Lex slipped away into the warm spring mist. Uncontrollable tears. Control, Luthor, Control. Will to power.  
  
The taxi picked him up a half mile down Hickory Lane. Destination: Downtown Smallville  
  
********************************************************************** Martha awoke. Damn, it really was warm for March. A light fog hung over Kent Farms. Far in the distance there was Jon. He was so handsome. His frame cutting a striking pose on the open, newly planted fields. She was so proud to be married to such a fine male specimen.  
  
And she was so proud to have Clark as a son. And Lex as a son as well. That's what he was to her, now. She couldn't imagine life without him. Of course, it was nowhere near conventional. But fuck conventional. Happiness is all that counts. Happiness and honesty.  
  
Never try to explain love. It's not like it's scientific. No one can define anyone else's version. And Clark & Lex....or "Clex" as Jonny calls them, are the real deal....  
  
Martha needed to go to Tesmacher's, the bank, post office and the bakery. She could have it all wrapped up by one or two in the afternoon.  
  
Maybe she'd stop and look at a car for Clark. If the harvest this year went well, they could swing it just fine.  
  
She stopped to look at herself in the mirror. Still attractive. Good mother. Nice person.  
  
You've got it all, Martha Kent, she thinks, smiling brightly at herself.  
  
**********************************************************************  
  
Clark rises, reaching blindly for Lex.  
  
He's gone.  
  
Where could he be?  
  
Fuck! It's eight-fifty.  
  
Oh, I forgot...I'm not going to school today.  
  
Lex was going to the Beanery and then to work, he told me last night....  
  
Is my Mom still home?  
  
He looks over to the house, using his super vision. Martha's already gone. Cool.  
  
Clark throws on a black t-shirt. Black jeans. Black shoes. Sunglasses. He looks like a reject model from Milan.  
  
But this is no runway.  
  
This is destiny. ***********************************************************************  
  
8:59  
  
Lex makes his way into the Western Union branch inside Smallville Civic Centre. The lady smiles. Lex hands her the message to send. Telegram. The agreed upon method of contact.  
  
"IZ....PLAN A IS IN MOTION...IF NO TELEGRAM B4 4-15 GO INTO PLAN C.K....I HOPE YOU ARE WELL...SAY HELLO TO PIERRE...."  
  
Lex pays the lady and goes out of Civic Centre onto Grand Avenue Plaza. The day is brilliant. Flowers are blooming everywhere. The fountains in the median and at the Memorial Circle are on for the first time since fall.  
  
The city seems so much bigger than it really is. So sophisticated. Urbane. Lex Luthor in Smallville. Years ago the idea would have made him sick.  
  
Now it feels like home.  
  
Looking down Grand, Lex sees the First of Metropolis Tower. The top of it is still lost in mist.  
  
He breathes deeply, gathering his strength.  
  
  
  
Clark is in the underground garage. Everything is a go. The timers are set for one hour.  
  
  
  
In Metropolis, the 81st floor helipad is readied for Lionel Luthor's departure. At the last minute, the call comes from Suite 666, Lionel's floor...  
  
"Mr. Luthor has decided his presence is not needed in Smallville. He has decided Dominic Hardwick can handle the arrangements..."  
  
"That's fine, Joe...they are having awful breezes, gale force winds from the southeast out that way. The weather's gone nuts in Smallville. I feel safer staying in Metropolis today..."  
  
  
  
Check Mate.  
  
  
  
Tesmacher's is nearly empty as Martha picks up her book.  
  
  
  
Jonathan is driving into Smallville to go by the Co-op. He thinks it would be nice to have an early lunch with Lex.  
  
Clark is crouched in the underground garage, trying his damnedest to get a x-ray look into the Vault above him. Little does Clark know, that vault is lined with six inches of solid lead.  
  
Lex nervously sips coffee at the Garden Cafe in the lobby of the Tower. Not many people around today he notices. ***********************************************************************  
  
9:39  
  
Lex sips. Clark strains his eyes. Martha smiles at Mr. Kennedy, owner of Kennedy's Kitties. Jonathan is stuck in awful traffic on the Eastern Parkway.  
  
The fog finally lifts from the crown of the Tower  
  
*********************************************************************** 9:45  
  
There's Loew. Moron. Lex has slipped pistol into his pocket.  
  
"Good morning, Lexy." Tanned, smug bastard. Oh-so-obvious cocaine nose job. Reeks of overpriced cologne.  
  
"Hey there, Loew."  
  
They shake hands.  
  
"I want you to meet Lee Vanderbilt, president of Smallville division, First of Metropolis. His office is there, behind the vault."  
  
"Let's ride, Loew."  
  
They enter the vault. Inside, even Lex is taken aback with the amazing display of LuthorCorp. Security notes. Lionel has been dumping money here.  
  
Hiding it.  
  
He tries to take in as much as possible.  
  
"Hello, Mr. Luthor. Haven't see you in a while."  
  
"Cut the small talk, Lee. What would you like to talk about?"  
  
"Bringing your father down. If we don't do something soon, Lex, he is going to destroy this bank. One hundred thirty years of trust with our customers. The board in Metropolis is scared of him. But they don't know about all this..."  
  
Produces thick dossier file. Inside, Lex flips through page after page of illegal money transfers. LuthorCorp is already bankrupt on paper.  
  
"Lee...listen...I know a way we can save the bank and bring down my father..."  
  
"I'm all ears, Lex.."  
  
"Me too, Lexy...."  
  
Both Vanderbilt and Lex glare at Loew.  
  
Loew backs away. He knows he's the odd man out...Still...  
  
"Don't forget, Lexy...I've got your boy's number."  
  
Lex smirks. Evil. Cold. ****************************************************************  
  
9:49  
  
Jonathan is still stuck in traffic. Downtown looms in the now-clear sunlight. Damn, I never thought Smallville would become a city. *****************************************************************  
  
9:51  
  
Clark sprints up the fire stairs towards the roof. So what if he couldn't see in the vault. So long as Lionel was there. Must've arrived by limo. Probably in there eating eggs and drinking champagne. Well, get ready, bastard....you're about to meet your maker. You hurt my Lex. And now you will die. Clark reaches the roof.  
  
He floats. Controls it. Controlled floating equals flying. Clark Kent can fly. He wants to watch this from above. Watch Lionel's empire crush him. It's so much fun. It's so damn cool. He wishes Lex were here, in his arms, to watch the magnificent show. ***********************************************************************  
  
  
  
9:52  
  
Lex and Vanderbilt start to look for specific details they can use to approach both LuthorCorp investors and FirstMetropolis board members to bring Lionel down. Loew looks nervous. Edgy. Suspicious.  
  
Suddenly, Dominic Hardwick enters. Smirking.  
  
Lex tenses up, puts his hand over his pocket. Vanderbilt moves forward--  
  
"I'm sorry Mr. Hardwick, this is private meeting."  
  
"Fuck you, Lee....Lionel is not happy with you turning traitor..."  
  
"I'm trying my best to protect this bank from default. We have over ten million customers. Years of loyal service. I will not let Lionel or you bring this bank down."  
  
"Fine." Dominic produces a gun. A big gun.  
  
Vanderbilt freezes. Looks at Loew, who has moved into position behind Dominic.  
  
"What kind of man are you?" Vanderbilt asks incredulously.  
  
"The man who will take the reins from Lionel Luthor. Your reaper, you fool. Your master. Your death call.."  
  
Lex, standing next to Vanderbilt, whips out his pistol, jumping in front of Vanderbilt.  
  
"O.K. Corral Time, bitch." Lex's eyes are cold as steel. Dominic helped to ruin him as much as his father did.  
  
"Oh yes, Sexy Lexy....I've been waiting for this. I marked you years ago...planted my sister in your bed, befriended you, fucked you, manipulated you....all to take your place..."  
  
Lex takes all this in, his resolve unbroken.  
  
"I know, Dominic. You're fucking evil, just like him."  
  
"Yes, I am. But at least I don't rape little boys. Was it good Lexy? Better than we were? I bet...he's one hot piece of extraterrestrial ass....."  
  
"What did you say?"  
  
"Your alien....your outer space bitch....we know Lexy...we know...we almost have figured out where he came from...soon, he'll be at S.T.A.R. and we're gonna dissect him...." Laughs evilly. "See this, Lexy..." pulls a file from his case..."This is the true story of Clark Kent....little alien lost, Farmboy Lolita, future exhibit at the Lionel Luthor Museum of Science! Ha, ha, ha...you can't save him, you fool!" ***********************************************************************  
  
9:55  
  
Martha Kent is at the teller booth. Just by chance, she peers into the gigantic vault. That can't be Lex Luthor....can it?  
  
"Excuse me," she asks Brenda the Teller...."Do you know if Mr. Lex Luthor had a meeting here this morning..."  
  
"Yes ma'am...with Mr. Vanderbilt, president of this branch."  
  
"Thank you..." She is shaken...looks back into vault. That bastard Dominic Hardwick is there too...What is he doing here?  
  
Cell phone ring almost gives her a stroke. She calms down, presses "ON."  
  
"Hello."  
  
"Babe...it's Jonathan..where are ya?"  
  
"Jonny...I'm at the First of Metropolis bank, main branch...in the Tower...something strange is happening...."  
  
Concern floods his voice..."What's wrong, Martha?"  
  
"Lex is here. In the vault. With Dominic, Lionel's henchman. And someone else I don't know."  
  
"I was just on my way to the Co-op. I was going to have an early lunch with Lex, check the farm prices."  
  
"Honey...don't go to Co-op...please come here, now....I think Lex is in trouble. Something feels horribly off..."  
  
"I'm almost downtown....give me seven or eight minutes."  
  
"OK, Jonathan...I love you."  
  
"Always, Martha...I'm so glad Clark's at school."  
  
"Oh, yes. Otherwise he's be over here...I don't want him near anymore danger..."  
  
"Me neither, kiddo...I'll see you in a few...be careful..."  
  
Connection crashes.  
  
Martha looks to vault. For just a moment she hesitates.  
  
Lex is part of the family now. Lex needs me. Something is wrong.  
  
Martha slowly walks towards the vault. There is a small marbled staircase leading from the main banking floor down into the multi-level depository.  
  
Martha is at the third step-- ********************************************************************  
  
  
  
  
  
9:59  
  
Clark hovers over the pinnacle of the tower, grinning and anticipating. Lex and Dominic fire their guns. The bombs...oh, the bombs....  
  
Bomb one...the basement....  
  
Bomb two...behind the vault...  
  
Bomb three...the roof....  
  
Basement is enveloped in black smoke. Levels four and five pancake one another. Sixteen people are crushed instantly as the concrete pillars fall onto one another. Fire erupts in the sub-basement. Upstairs it is panic. Tenants begin to wail and scream as the black smoke races floor-to-floor, snuffing out all life. The sprinkler system cuts on. Backfires, starting electrical conflagrations. Oxygen system starts to pour fresh air into lobby, atrium, corridors...but  
  
Bomb two hits....  
  
The vault literally turns on its side. Gold bars fall to ground. Martha is thrown down the stairs, lands underneath Vanderbilt's mahogany desk. Martha cries out as she sees, through the dust, Lex staggering towards her, blood dripping and dripping....  
  
"Lex!"  
  
He sees her and collapses a few feet in front of the desk. The smoke is getting thicker. Martha crawls out from under the desk and pulls Lex back under it. Protection. Lex had a file in his hands...he pushes it at Martha, forcing it into her hands, babbling  
  
"He's s-s-s--s-afe, now....h-h-e's safe...." Tries to smile at her. Trembles.  
  
Oh, no.  
  
Gaping hole in his chest. Breathing ragged. Martha rips off her sweater and tries to sop up the blood, make some kind of tight bandage. Places her fingers into the wound; literally feels his heart....  
  
It's still beating....oh, god...Clark, Jonathan...somebody....  
  
The building is on fire. Floors twenty to thirty are unreachable. The elevators are jammed. On the street below it is madness and hysteria.  
  
Thousands of citizens try to get closer to see the Tower as it destructs. Soon, however, glass begins to pop from the exterior. Granite panels begin to fall to Grand Plaza below.  
  
The crowd moans collectively. All those people. All those people trapped in there. A collective prayer goes out to a silent, uncaring God. ***********************************************************************  
  
  
  
10:04 Clark can't see anything. Too much fucking dust. Flies down to the roof. Fire all around him. Hears the roar of the building buckling beneath him. Grins. Smiles. All for you, Lex. All for you.  
  
The third bomb finally goes off. ***********************************************************************  
  
  
  
  
  
10:06 The building loses all power. The building literally seems to jump off the ground with the blast from the third plastique surprise.  
  
Emergency systems, save the sprinklers, are all inoperable. The Building's command center is useless. Besides, all the security staff who were assembled there are dead, crushed as the western facade of the building fell inward.  
  
Everything is unhinged. Everything is cracked.  
  
Martha screams for help. How will they ever get out of here? She and a bleeding, dying Lex are trapped alive, buried in a steel and lead vault. The marble staircase is gone. For a moment, Martha considers trying to drag Lex over to the north door but then....  
  
The entire glass and steel roof of the palatial atrium cracks and collapses onto the former lobby and bank office. Martha turns both herself and Lex's motionless body towards the steel wall behind them. She feels hot glass hit her back, but luckily, feels no deep cuts.  
  
They are covered in shards, pieces, and slivers of heavy stained glass. It's as if a rainbow has fallen from the sky.  
  
Martha looks in her purse...she has a bottle of water she carries, always, out of habit. She tries to force Lex to drink some. He is shaking. Her fingers soaked in his blood.  
  
His eyes open. He is scared. He begins to weep. Softly. Resigned.  
  
"Mr--Mrs. k-k-k...kent?"  
  
"Yes, baby, it's Martha...don't talk...stay still...there's been some kind of explosion....please don't talk.."  
  
His breathing is horridly ragged and raspy. Martha doesn't know much about gunshot wounds. She remembers you are supposed to keep them awake.  
  
"Keep talking....please...I'm stupid Lex, I was wrong....please talk to me..."  
  
"Ma-ma....Martha....I..I...b-b-b-urn that file....burn it...p-p-protect Clark...they w-w-will cut him....Uhhhhh."  
  
Eyes are bloodshot. Rolled back in head. Moans in pain and horror.  
  
"Stay with me Lex....please honey...just hold on...someone will find us..."  
  
Delirious. "F-F-F-find us? Whhhheree are w-w-e...?  
  
"In the vault...just stay awake honey, don't think about anything else."  
  
The building lurches again, as the vault levels sink onto the garage. The bodies of Dominic Hardwick, Lee Vanderbilt, and Carrington Loew are revealed. Crushed under debris. Carrington has a shot to the head.  
  
Martha stops herself from vomiting. Blood is spurting out of him. She strokes his clammy face with her free hand.  
  
Hold on baby. Hold on. Clark will find us. Clark will find us.  
  
Martha screams into the cold, dark, shattered world. **********************************************************************  
  
  
  
  
  
10:10  
  
Jonathan runs towards the tower. Just as he was pulling onto Locust from Grant the top of the building vanished in a plume of smoke. Terrorists? In Smallville? Couldn't be, could it?  
  
MARTHA. Oh God, please protect her. LEX.  
  
There was still so much confusion in the plaza and with flames shooting out from the upper floors, the police hadn't had time to set up a system of barricades. Jonathan sprinted through the crowd, jumping over glass and bodies, and granite and hundred dollar bills. He found what had been the revolving doors. Debris everywhere. The entire atrium was gone. Ten-stories of open space had crushed on itself.  
  
Hot wires were everywhere. The sprinklers were turning this place into a death trap. But Jonathan till had his football skills. His agility.  
  
He bounded through the ruined garden, reaching what had been the entrance to the banking hall. There, at the front door, lay Brenda the Teller and several others. Asphyxiated. Cut to death by blowing glass...  
  
MARTHA! LEX!  
  
Martha heard her husband, faintly.  
  
JON! DOWN HERE! DOWN HERE...FAR SIDE OF THE VAULT!  
  
I HEAR YOU BABE...GIVE ME A FEW MINUTES  
  
KEEP TALKING!  
  
Lex was shaking violently. "C-l-lark...CClark!"...he began to scream...,seizures wracking his pale frame.  
  
"Stop, Lex...don't strain yourself..."  
  
Lex sat up, adrenaline rushing over him..  
  
"CLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRKKKKKKK....Saaaaaaaaaaaaavvvvvvveeeeeeee meeeeeeeeee..."  
  
Lex's throat made a horrible gurgling sound and he began vomiting blood. He shook. Martha tried to hold him still, calm him.  
  
Through the blood he mumbled...  
  
Clark baby Clark Clark I cant breathe its hot and pink and Clark i can't see you Clark Clark Clark all I can see is red Clark it's filling up...CLARK. Oh Clark I'm gonna fly....like you always told me I would....I'm gonna fly...just like you Clark...I protected you...like I promised....No one will hurt you now baby....Oh, please...don't make me leave...no...we're meant to be...it's so warm...and it's blue...and there's peace, Clark...you're safe, baby...I made sure.....  
  
Begins to choke on own blood. What an awful way to go? At least I protected Clark. Martha screams for Jonathan to hurry. Screams for anyone to save Lex. Lex tries to hold on.  
  
It's filling up, Clark. I'm drowning. ********************************************************************  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Just a few dozen feet away, Clark was bored. He had tired of the mob scene in the plaza, the fires above. He was still trying to understand why he couldn't see through the vault walls.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Then he heard the cry.  
  
Lex? Mom? Oh my God! Lex?  
  
  
  
OH MY MOTHERFUCKING GOD? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!  
  
  
  
Clark's scream was heard all the way to Gotham City, to Moscow.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Jonathan knew that voice.  
  
"Clark, son...is that you? I'm here, son...in the banking hall, by the stairs...if you can get here to help me...try....your mother and Lex are trapped below...."  
  
Clark was already digging as soon as he heard "Mom and Lex"  
  
What had he done? Why hadn't he made sure no one was around? Why had he grown so careless? So fucking malicious?  
  
What if he had murdered his mother? What if he had killed his baby, his Lex?  
  
Clark dug with the strength of one thousand men. Dug. And cried and cried and motherfucking cried.  
  
He heard his Mother. She was still screaming out for help.  
  
Thank goodness.  
  
He kept digging. There was the lead lining. He broke through it and put his x-ray on overdrive. He saw his Dad on the other side of the rubble, digging in, piece by piece.  
  
There, about twenty feet directly ahead, was his mother.  
  
Hunched over something. Someone.  
  
Weeping so hard. She looked like she was breaking.  
  
What's wrong, Mom? I'm here.  
  
Martha wailed in misery, her hands in her hair...tears flowing. Clark finally broke through the last of the steel, pushing the last piece out of the way....revealing.....  
  
  
  
Lex Luthor, dead, beneath his mother.  
  
Her hands soaked in blood. She just looked at him. With love. She took his hand in hers. He pressed it to his face....  
  
No words were needed. Martha backed away, weeping. Knowing Clark would try everything.  
  
Knowing, deep inside, everything wasn't enough.  
  
Lex cold. Lex still. Clark planted his mouth to Lex's frozen lips. Nothing. Clark x-rayed his chest. Lungs filled with blood, completely. His heart cold, bullet in the left ventricle. He tried to force air into Lex's lungs. Tried to suck the blood out. But it was all over. Lex was dead.  
  
Clark lay down beside Lex and wrapped his arms around him. Blood like water....holding them in a pool of love. Lex's eyes were closed, his face calm. His hands clenched into little fists. Go out strong, Luthor. Will to power.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Clark unfurled Lex's fingers and put his small hand inside his. Clark snuggled closer to Lex.  
  
"I tried Lex. I love you. I still won't ever let you go."  
  
  
  
Jonathan, having finally broken through the debris, is horrified by the tragic scene. His mouth falls open in agony.  
  
Martha runs to him, holding him and screaming aloud. The cries of a woman who has seen the end of the world.  
  
Clark cries out as well, drenched in Lex's blood.  
  
Draped over, under, around his lifeless body.  
  
Clark kisses Lex's red lips.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Sunlight pours through the broken skylight. It creates rainbow patterns with shattered glass.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
A Love Like This Will Not Be Seen Again.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Lex Luthor ascends.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Smallville was shattered.  
  
Martha Kent was in shock.  
  
Jonathan Kent...he tried for everyone's sake to hold things together.  
  
  
  
Clark Kent was numb. He had done this. His rage. His pain. His love. His love had killed Lex.  
  
He was heir to tragedy...heir to regret... TO HEIR HUMAN....goes the pain...  
  
*******************************************************************  
  
Lex Luthor's final wishes were carried out.  
  
His body was cremated. Ashes placed in the lead box given to him years before by his mother, Alexandra.  
  
The box was given to Clark.  
  
Lionel Luthor made no appearance. He was said to be out of the country.  
  
The service was held the first of April.  
  
The most tragic of April Fool's.  
  
A small group of people huddled around the Wayne Foundation Fountain in Locust Square. Ten people to be exact.  
  
Clark couldn't handle it.  
  
The sky was pink that morning. Clear and warm. Birds glided gently over the park. Trees, glistening with newfound green, rustled over the gathering. Squirrels played and splashed in the trickling fountain.  
  
Clark lay, eyes clenched, in newborn flowers. Dazed.  
  
Martha Kent spoke:  
  
"Friends....we are here to remember Lex Luthor. Lex was a young man I had the pleasure to call my *son*. Not blood, of course, but just as beloved. He was a brilliant businessman, scientist, and good friend. He didn't have the easiest of lives; people on the outside saw him as spoiled, indulged, and vain. Most people never gave Lex Luthor a chance. They judged him based on rumours, on suppositions. They never got inside his mind, his heart... Let me tell you... Lex Luthor was the gentlest man. He was a gentleman, in the fiercest since of the word. He was also the kindest. He had a clean heart, one that could have encompassed the entire world. I know this by the way he loved and cherished my family. He came to us as a friend and left a confidant, a partner, a son, and a brother. Much has been inferred about the darkness in this man's life. But I ask you this: are we all not stuck in darkness? Do we all not slide into shadows? Yes, indeed, we all do. What redeems us as human beings is the ability, the hope...the hope of finding people to pull us out of the rain and into the bright, benevolent sunshine. Lex Luthor helped my family pull itself into the light. We helped him find happiness. We worked together to face the challenges of this world. This cruel, gossipy, hard, jaded, vain world. Lex Luthor was once hardened, cruel, and vain. But he left this world soft and open and giddy with possibility, blessed with humility and touched by grace and love. We should all lead such lives...."  
  
Jonathan smiled, so proud of his wife. She had taken this entire thing so hard. She literally held Lex's heart as he weakened. She was there for his last breath. She rocked his dying body as he gasped for air. She held him. That bonds you to someone forever, he thought.  
  
Portrait of Lex on a table. White, crisp linen. From the summer prior. Happy. Healthy. Handsome. Smile glistening. No smirk. Just content. In love.  
  
That's from the day at the Palace of Arts, Clark remembers....pulling grass through his hands...dizzy...  
  
Clark looked transparent. My God, Jonathan thought. I didn't know he could lose weight. Clark looked like a skeleton. Ghost. Dead.  
  
Martha came down from the small podium and walked over to Jonathan.  
  
"Baby...that was wonderful...Lex would have been grateful."  
  
"I know, Jon...how's Clark?" She looked over towards the field of crocuses. Clark just lay there. Staring at the sky. Hair disheveled. Lost.  
  
Clark wasn't coping.  
  
"This is going to be a long process. We've got to just give him time."  
  
"Time itself might never heal Clark...he blames himself for--"  
  
Jonathan reached up quickly but gently and covered Martha's lips with his fingers...  
  
"I know....Clark knows what he's done. But damn, Martha...he can't blame himself. Both he and Lex thought they had to take desperate measures. Both of them feared the other was in danger, in pain..."  
  
She remembers the look on Clark's face. Utter horror. The wail he made as the EMT's wheeled Lex's body away. The way he wouldn't leave Lex. The same look he had on Lex's birthday. Protection. Devotion. He was his guardian.  
  
Clark had fought the coroner's deputies as they tried to gently place Lex's body on a gurney. He wouldn't let go. Lex was lying there. Clark kept talking to him. In crazed, desperate tones. Oh, God...she thought she'd drop dead herself there...it was the most horrible thing to witness...she had nearly fainted dead away when Clark began to scream, begging Lex to stay...  
  
Shaken, Martha begins to weep. Jon brings her into a tight embrace. They are closer now than ever. But at what a horrific price.  
  
"Oh, Jon...they loved each other so. The most powerful emotions I've known. Like they were one person, both so strong....both so indebted to one another for loving each other. Why them? Why weren't they allowed to fly free, Jon? Where is the fairness in all this? Where is "God"? I thought he protected true hearts? I am so angry, so devastated. This just isn't the way things are supposed to be...He's only seventeen, Jon...he's still a child in so many ways...how will he handle this?"  
  
The few other guests....Mr. Vanderbilt's widow, a couple of staff members from Luthor Manor, Dr. Honeydeux from Arkham, Aurora from L'Etoile, one person they didn't know (a smartly dressed lady handcuffed to a briefcase)....they filed away out of the square....each leaving a single white rose by the picture of Lex.  
  
Both Martha & Jon feared Clark would try to kill himself again. They scoured his room, the Barn, the fields for green meteor rocks. Even if Lex's death didn't drive him to try it, the knowledge that he had killed all those workers in the tower might drive him to it. Our baby, a terrorist. Our baby, so desperate. Oh, Clark....poor baby...  
  
Nothing would ever be the same. The world had lost a person who could have saved it. Or destroyed it.  
  
Either way, with the death of Lex Luthor, the world lost a star.  
  
***************************************************************** Clark was lost in memories. New. Old. There. ********************************************************************  
  
There.  
  
Lex's bloody form in his arms. Draped over his shoulder. He had tried to fly away, take Lex's body far away from all of this pain. Fly Lex to the islands he so loved, the pink sky tropics, where no one could touch them. Where Clark would never leave his side. Breathe, for me. His mother was there, begging Clark not to move. Why won't he breathe? He's gone, son. He's gone...  
  
Clark was just fighting and moaning, Lex's arms around his neck, trying to lift off the ground. He found he'd lost his wings. He could not rise. He'd lost flight as fast as attaining it.  
  
As a result, those people wrenched Lex from his arms. He found his super strength was gone. He wanted to push them back, fight them until the end of time, keep them from zipping his baby in that bag. But he couldn't. He had to watch them as they pushed him back....pushed him back...into his parents' arms....  
  
And Lex couldn't breathe...and they put him in a bag... HE CAN'T BREATHE...PLEASE OPEN THE BAG...PLEASE PLEASE, HE'S AFRAID....PLEASE...LET HIM HAVE SOME AIR...  
  
Tears. He can't remember a time he wasn't constantly crying.  
  
PLEASE...OH GOD...OPEN THE BAG...HE'S CHOKING...HE NEEDS ME..  
  
Wailing. The coroner's people were visibly shaken. Poor kid. Must've really cared about this Luthor guy.  
  
Dried blood everywhere. Lex's arm hanging down from the gurney. Quickly placed over his chest. Clark yelped as he saw the arm...  
  
BABY...REACH FOR ME....PLEASE...  
  
He reached out, trying to break free from his father's strong grip, straining to get to Lex. To get inside the bag with him and plant his lips on those red ones...to force life back into his lover's lungs. To restart his heart.  
  
To go back in time. To a place where Lex knew he'd survive.  
  
The minivan driving away. The shattered glass all around him. His parents trying to calm him. Clark just rolled his head around, ruined, broken...closed... Clark collapsed after that, spent and wasted...  
  
Martha and Jon had carried him outside. For a few moments they thought he, too, was gone. He was immobile. His tongue dry and hanging out. Like a dog denied water in summer heat. Jon leaned in close to his son, hearing a strong heartbeat. But his face was blank.  
  
They had put his baby in a plastic bag. Like trash. Like junk. My precious baby....my God what have I done to you...  
  
For hours Clark just stared at the sky. He wished his spaceship had burned up in the atmosphere. He wished he'd never been sent to Earth. He had destroyed love. He had ruined the best thing that had ever happened to him.  
  
Nothing his parents said could change that.  
  
Late that night, Clark snuck out of the house and ran to the Lowell County Hospital. His parents, exhausted by the day's events, had passed out in the loft; Jonathan holding Martha in his arms. Worried look on his face. Sadness drawn across hers.  
  
Clark tried to run with super speed....but found himself out of breath, burning. Tired. Losing Lex had stripped him of everything. Even his *gifts*  
  
But what kind of gifts were they if they couldn't save the man he loved?  
  
Walking, sprinting. Hurting. Lost, It takes forever. Clark isn't used to speed limits.....finally there is the concrete and glass medical facility. Clark walks in. He's sweaty. Looks like he was dunked in....oh, God, that's *blood*... He's wired. People look him funny.  
  
He sees no one. He just walks straight ahead. To the stairwell. Down into the basement. The cool cavern of cadavers. Morgue-land.  
  
He finds Lex. Number 3-C. Cold steel, naked. Clark pulls Lex out. He looks yellow, faded. Clark gasps. Lex's lips are lavender. His eyes wide open. Staring into Clark.  
  
Clark begins to speak to Lex, taking the tiny *frozen* hand in his big, warm one.....  
  
**********************************************************************  
  
You hate me now. I made it so you couldn't breathe. Mom says you were shot...that the bullet killed you but you died because I wasn't there to breathe for you. Oh, fuck...Lex...please talk to me...call me a moron...call me a fucking idiot farmboy....call me names, hit me...fucking poison me, shoot me....surround me with meteor rocks...please, baby...anything...make me suffer....make me feel like you did.... All I can think about is how scared you must have been...How many times, Lexy...? How many times did you hold onto me...your fingernails digging into me, gasping for air...but before I always held you, loved you...brought you back from the edge. Why wasn't I there this time? How could I let you die like that? Goddamnit...fuck you, Lex...you weren't supposed to ever leave me you bastard....(crying hard)...how the hell can you expect me to even wake up, take a shower, eat breakfast without seeing your smirk across the table from me... How do you expect my body to function without your kiss? How do you expect me to ever have sex again? Fuck....the only person I want is you. And those other people. Lex, I fucking killed them. Cold blood. All those innocent people in the tower. I'm a butcher. And I cut my other half off in the process.  
  
Lex lies there, dead.  
  
Please, baby....wake up...oh God...fuck....please...I'm begging you...just once....for me....you are the reason I'm alive, Lex...you did everything for me....Mom showed me the papers from S.T.A.R.....you were trying to save me, baby....I love you...Oh God please...bring him back....but God doesn't include me in his people....I'm not human....I'm nothing....I have no background....You were my background, Lex. You were my present, my future. You were the reason I didn't just go down to the foundry and off myself. I used to think about it everyday, even before I found out I was a goddamned gay alien. All I wanted to do was die. You gave me a reason to smile....a reason to keep smiling, all day, every day.  
  
Oh please, Lexy.  
  
Please. Talk to me. I know I'm nuts...please baby. I woke up today and you weren't there and the bed still smelled like you. All clean and fresh and hot and I got hard. I'm sorry. I shouldn't be able to even get a woody now. But I was fucking hard because I kept thinking you would come around the corner and kiss me and say "you damn fool, Kent!" And laugh at me and hold me and lick my chest and oh, goddamn, love me....  
  
I think about the bullet hitting you. Oh, baby...I'm sorry. I know it hurt. Mom said you were brave. You said you were so fucking brave. That you wanted. That you tried. That you begged. That you fought. FOR ME. She said you weren't thinking of yourself. You were fucking dying my love...all you wanted was my safety. All the while I'm bouncing off the damn roof killing the city and you're down there in my Mom's arms sealing my safety... Why wasn't I better than that? I should have sensed your pain. You got shot in the heart, baby. I should have felt it. I know it had to hurt. Mom doesn't want me to picture it. But there was blood everywhere....you must have been so scared.  
  
Lex lies there, dead.  
  
You look so cold, Lex. Let me warm you. Clark climbs onto steel panel...it creaks...but it holds the weight of the alien and the dead human.  
  
That's better. It's all going to be happy now, baby. I'll never leave you again. I'm here. Clark's here. You're cold. You were always so cold, Lexy. But never again. Warm and happy. Clark's here. Look at your lips...you look frostbitten.  
  
Insanity rears its head...  
  
Clark reaches out to touch Lex's mouth....traces the frosty lips....moves his fingers up, caresses the sunken cheeks...gently uses his index fingers to shut Lex's eyes.  
  
There...now you can sleep, baby...it's nice and dark and warm here with Clark. I'll hold you. And protect you. Forever. Just you and me, Lex.  
  
You're so cold. I'm still warm. My last gift I share with you. ********************************************************************  
  
Jonathan & Martha get a call the next morning from the coroner at the Morgue. They rush to County Hospital, finding Clark in the locker with Lex...the two of them zipped up together. Holding one another. A beatific smile gracing Clark's face.  
  
Lex rigid, bloodless. Clark looks happier than ever.  
  
They observe from the glass windows of the Coroner's office. Clark is asleep, so content.  
  
"My God, Jonathan!" The blood draining from her face...  
  
"He looks so peaceful. Damn. Damn...." Jonathan can't think of words to describe the scene.  
  
Dr. Petrie, the Lowell County Coroner, speaks:  
  
"You must get your son out of there. This is completely improper. We can't have a body being tampered with. Not to mention the sanitary issues."  
  
The Kents understand nothing about this is "proper." But what in life is? (Try defining proper!)  
  
"Look, Doc, I understand. But our son Clark has been through a lot. Lex was his best friend in the whole world and he adored him. Like a big brother. He is having an awful time dealing with this."  
  
"I don't give a damn, Mr. Kent. Your son needs psychiatric care, not sleepy time with the body."  
  
Martha speaks up...."Perhaps this is closure for him, Doctor? Perhaps this will let him know Lex really is gone..."  
  
"I've never heard such nonsense. Get him out of there in the next fifteen minutes or the Smallville Police will!"  
  
Bastard, Martha thinks. Prick, Jonathan thinks. (Good minds think alike, ya?)  
  
The couple looks into the vault, a mix of awe and pride coloring their expressions. Clark was raised right. He is loyal to a fault. But.....this isn't healthy. Hell fucking no. We've got to get him away from Lex's body. Clark must deal with what has happen, not live in fantasyland.  
  
Entering the freezing repository, Jonathan reaches out and tugs at his son's shoulder. Clark's always so warm. Clark stirs gently.  
  
"Oh...Lex...that feels nice....do you wanna play, baby...please...anything you want....I love you..."  
  
Jonathan winces. This is going to be a nightmare.  
  
"Clark. Wake up. It's not Lex. Lex is dead. It's your father, Jonathan Kent."  
  
Clark squeezes his eyes as if trying to ignore his father's voice.  
  
"Clark. Wake up, now!"  
  
Clark opens his eyes wearily to find the body tucked under him and his father holding his shoulder.  
  
"Son, Lex needs some time alone. Let's go talk somewhere, OK?"  
  
Clark thinks. Looks at Lex. Kisses him on the lips.  
  
"I'll be back, OK...just give me a few minutes with my Dad."  
  
Lex is dead, of course.  
  
"C'mon, Clark...get dressed, son."  
  
Jonathan is so saddened by this spectacle. His son Clark is naked, aroused, sleeping with Lex Luthor, deceased.  
  
My Lord, what else can happen? Just a year ago everything was different. Just a year ago it was simple.  
  
Then again, what exactly is simple when you are father to an alien? He couldn't fault Clark for anything. Not with that winning smile. Amazing strength. Warm heart.  
  
No, if anything, everything that had occurred just made Jonathan love his son more.  
  
Clark dresses. Jonathan notices he is still in the blood stained outfit from the day prior. Damn.  
  
"Son, your mother and I need to talk to you at the farm."  
  
"I can't leave Lex, you know that Dad...he's cold."  
  
"I know....I know he's cold...and I'm sorry..."  
  
"--so you see why I can't leave him..." Smiles brightly. "No one else loves him like me. Nobody else can make sure he keeps breathing. I'm his best pal, too, Dad."  
  
Something in that smile is manic, desperate, clinging.....Jonathan sees Clark is barely hanging on.  
  
"Son, we need you at the house. Please. Plus, I need some help in the fields with planting."  
  
"Dad, I can't leave Lex."  
  
"Yes you can...watch..."  
  
Jonathan goes out for a moment, comes back in with a space heater he'd noticed on Dr. Petrie's floor. Places it next to Lex's locker.  
  
Clark stares, mesmerized.  
  
"That'll keep him warm 'till I get back? Will it, Daddy?" Pleading.  
  
Jonathan gives his son a warm, strong smile.  
  
"Of course, Clark. Let Lex rest. Come home, son."  
  
"O.K....I trust you..." Clark leans down and kisses Lex on mouth, cheek, rubs his blue, bald head..."I'll be back in no time....if you have a hard time breathing just scream for me...."  
  
Delusions....  
  
Every moment in Clark Kent's mind is war.  
  
SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVVVVVVEEE MMMMMMMEEEEEEE  
  
Echoes.  
  
The sound of metallic doors. The vault.  
  
Secrets.  
  
His mother's wails for help.  
  
Clark flashes forward.....backward....  
  
  
  
His father's reassuring answers.  
  
  
  
Lex's harrowing, dying cry.......CLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRKKKKKKKK.......  
  
Clark begins shaking. Vomits green fluid all over the white flowers....  
  
Lex choking.  
  
Scream for me.  
  
Die for me.  
  
Lick up the blood, Luthor. Lick it up. Eat it. Die for me, Lexy.  
  
Save me, Clark. Please. It's filling up.  
  
Pools filled with ten thousand drowning Lex Luthors.  
  
Kal-El.  
  
Clark kept seeing Lex coated in blood, thick like glue....hands outreached, smirking...  
  
"Thanks, Clark....thanks for killing me....I always wanted to die. You handed it to me, easy. I knew you loved me enough to kill me."  
  
Oh, no...please Lex...I would have done anything. I wanted to help you. Thought getting Lionel outta the way would help you. Make you happy. Stop the attacks. Save you.  
  
"Thanks for killing me, Clark."  
  
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
Clark can't tell which day is which. Every day is the same. The day he murdered innocents. The day he flew to hell. The day the world ended. The day his mother held his lover's heart. And watched it stop.  
  
The day he'd turned dark, Lex had found the light, and Clark had shattered their love.  
  
***********************************************************************  
  
Jonathan and Martha drove Clark home from County Hospital. The entire way Clark looked out the window, happily chatting about school and the upcoming talent show.  
  
It was as if he didn't remember what had happened.  
  
Jonathan looked at Martha. She gave him a concerned look, pursing her lips, gently shaking her head.  
  
Jonathan desperately wanted to drive downtown, show Clark the smoldering ruins of First of Metropolis complex; perhaps if he saw the damage again he would be able to fully comprehend and handle the fact that Lex Luthor was dead. Forever.  
  
Somewhere "other", Lex Luthor so desperately wanted Clark to realize it as well....he had to if he were to survive.  
  
They pulled up to Kent Farms...Jonathan erring to Martha's negative vibe on visiting the site of apocalypse...  
  
Clark was smiling. Martha tried her hardest to match the smile. They entered the house. Clark hugged both his parents. Martha went out to get the paper, which both she and Jon had neglected to notice in their morning rush to the Morgue.  
  
Jonathan went out to check on the tractor, stopping for a quick talk with Martha on the porch....  
  
"Thirty minutes, Martha...then we are sitting down with Clark. We have to lay things out for him. Get him back in the real world. I am scared as hell of this whole thing. But we have to be honest with him. He's our son."  
  
"I agree, whole-heartedly. I hate the thought of our boy in pain, Jon. But he's gonna hurt no matter what. And he cannot go around thinking Lex is still with us." Jon went out to the barn.  
  
Martha brought the paper back in, finding Clark eating peanut butter with his fingers. Hilarious. Big, clumsy hands. Hair all over the place. Sticky. So damned cute. For just a moment, she forgot all the horrors of the previous forty-eight hours.  
  
She put the paper on the table. She let her guard down.  
  
"I'm gonna go out to the garden for just a sec, Clark? Then your father and I need to talk to you. Is that alright?"  
  
Mouth full, grinning...."Sure."  
  
Martha smiles, stopping to hug Clark. He looks at her happily and beweildered at her serious demeanor.  
  
***********************************************************************  
  
I'll be back with Lex this afternoon. God, I love him. He makes me feel special and wanted. Lex is my favorite person in the whole world. Well, tied with my Mom & Dad.  
  
Everything's great, now. Lex is warm and I'll be back later to hold him. The world is wonderful and... And... I should look at the paper...see what movies are showing...Lex loves movies...he even said he'd take me to California someday to meet movie stars, see palm trees. I'd love to climb one of those sky dusters. Those big tall, amazing, beautiful trees. And Lex will kiss me and tell me I'm cute. And I'll believe him.  
  
Clark reaches for paper. He flips the six-section parcel over. It seems unusually thick. He stares at the front page.  
  
SMALLVILLE: GROUND ZERO SMALLVILLE ATTACKED DEATH, MAYHEM, HORROR AS DOZENS FOUND DEAD FALLEN HEIR LEX LUTHOR, 23, AMONG THE DEAD METROPOLIS BANKER ALSO KILLED MADNESS AND DESPAIR FILL CITY NEW TOWER DESTROYED; LIONEL LUTHOR SAYS "WE WILL REBUILD!" SMALLVILLE WILL RISE! SAYS MAYOR TERRORISM SUSPECTED POSSIBLE LUTHORCORP CONNECTION TO BOMBS  
  
FALLEN HEIR LEX LUTHOR, 23, AMONG THE DEAD  
  
"Alexander "Lex" Luthor, 23, was among those killed in yesterday's massive series of explosions downtown. Mr. Luthor, former heir to the billion- dollar LuthorCorp fortune...born June 23, 1979 to the late British stage actress Alexandra Lord and coporate hawk Lionel Luthor, Mr. Luthor led a life of drama and scandal, often tinged with tragedy and sorrow...."  
  
FALLEN HEIR  
  
LEX  
  
LEX  
  
DEAD  
  
FALLEN  
  
"You'd never let me fall, would you Kent...?"  
  
DEAD  
  
"I'll keep you alive, Lex...I promise.  
  
LEX  
  
"I love you, Clark...always..."  
  
DOZENS FOUND DEAD...  
  
LEX...  
  
Martha hears a series of crashes from the garden. Sounds like glass. Clark. Oh, Clark. Hold on.  
  
"Jonathan!" she screams loudly...."The house, Jonathan! Go to the house!"  
  
Jonathan, blood racing, sprints back towards the house.  
  
There, in the kitchen is Clark.  
  
Every pane of glass is cracked or broken. Clark's scream was so high human ears could not register it....Dogs, however, went wild all the way to Metropolis. Sanity floods him... Reality stings him. Powers rush back. He is alive. Lex is dead.  
  
Martha reaches to touch him.  
  
"Don't touch me, Mom....please...I don't want you to die."  
  
"Clark you'd never hurt me. Don't say that!"  
  
Clark's eyes washed by tears, by years of sadness, returning (Lex was the band-aid, the salve, to those years of being the freak....the loser...the geek....the moron....)  
  
"Mom...I loved him...I held him...I made love to him....and he died...I touched him and he died..."  
  
"Lex lived because you touched him, baby. He relied on you. He loved you. Your touch made him complete and full and confident and strong. Your touch is what Lex Luthor lived for, every day, in every step he took there was your mark."  
  
"No, Mommy...Lex died because of what I did to the building. The bombs...I killed innocents...so God took Lex away from me...."  
  
Jonathan runs in. Watches Martha. Loves her for loving he and Clark so much, so well.  
  
Martha runs her fingers through Clark's hair.  
  
"Clark...I will not excuse your behavior regarding that building...you have done something horrible...those people didn't work for Lionel or Dominic; they weren't involved. You should have told us you were so on edge..."  
  
"I was so s-s--cared...that you might throw me out...or be frightened of me yourself. I had to be secret...like Lex always was...secret....I thought I could handle everything."  
  
"Baby, murder is not a way to fix things....EVER! Do you hear me, Clark? I love you too much to watch you do bad things. You are meant to bring hope to this world, you big beautiful son of mine. Don't ever lurk in shadows. They will destroy you."  
  
Crying...."Mommy I feel so bad....I do...I didn't want to do bad things...I was trying to protect Lex...his lungs....were ...going out...I panicked..."  
  
"We're here for you to talk to baby....we're your parents...if you were so worried about Lex you should have come to us...but, no matter...both you and Lex were simply trying to express your love....god....if only..."  
  
"What...if only what?"  
  
"Nothing, Clark...I'm not sure anything could have stopped what happened. Both of you were in over your head....but, Clark, don't ever regret that part...the love, the way you would do anything to help the man you love. That speaks volumes about your compassion and ability to protect. You are one hell of a son, Clark. You have made me cry but more than that, you have made me proud."  
  
Martha is anything but angry. But she will not have Clark weakened by all this tragedy. She wants her son to grow from this, learn from his mistakes. Jonathan watches, awed by her power....  
  
"Do you understand me, Clark?"  
  
"I still...I still think God is punishing me...."  
  
"Baby....God doesn't work that way. Things just happen. Sometimes horrible, ugly things where people are hurt. But Lex dying wasn't punishment for your misdeeds. Lex would probably have gotten shot whether or not the tower had been bombed. Those people...Lionel's people...they trapped him, Clark...it was a set-up. Poor Lex and Mr. Vanderbilt were trying to help people, save the bank, LuthorCorp employees--"  
  
"Don't forget me, Mom....Lex died trying to save me. He knew they would cut me."  
  
"Yes, damnit....so don't sit here pitying yourself. Lex gave you a gift, baby. Lex gave you the gift of freedom. The gift to live a life without fear. Without S.T.A.R. or Lionel or anyone else following you, taping you, kidnapping you, killing you. He lived and died so you could go forward."  
  
Cassandra's visions. Clark was here to help people.  
  
Clark cries, but tears of pride. Lex Luthor loved him so much he went into danger. For him. Remembers holding him, so close. Completely welded to one another. In synch. In like. In love.  
  
"Clark...Lex's last moments were spent thinking of you. Hoping you'd be happy. He begged me to watch over you. He wanted so badly to stay."  
  
"Why d-d-d-idn't he...Mommy....I just hurt...there's a hole in my heart...just like Lex...."  
  
"I know..." pulling him close, into her arms..."I know, baby....there's a hole in my heart, too...and your Dad's....we all loved him so...."  
  
"Will it ever fill in?"  
  
Martha thought about her answer, carefully selecting her words:  
  
"I don't think we want it to fill in, Clark. That blank spot will always remind us of how large a part of our lives Lex was. It will serve as a place to reflect on him, his impact. It won't always hurt to remember him; someday that hurt will transform into joy...like a butterfly, Clark. Like a marvelous butterfly, set free from the cocoon....for long summer days in the sun."  
  
She pulled Jonathan in for a family hug. And tears. And memories. Because there would never be another Lex Luthor, that was for certain.  
  
Clark pictured Lex, looking healthy and strong, smiling at the three of them. He wondered if Lex could hear him when he gently whispered, with love and reverence,  
  
"I love you, Lex. Someday I will come to you, look in your eyes. Love is forever, love never dies. Someday we'll find that cathedral in paradise..."  
  
On another level, Lex heard Clark's magnificent promise....I hear you, Clark....  
  
Jon & Martha embraced. The road would be long until things were even *close* to normal. Clark had a lot of soul searching to do. He was still fragile. Guilt was still fresh there, in that handsome face. They prayed no one could connect him to the bombs. But whatever happened, they would face it, the three of them unified.  
  
And no one would ever forget how Lex Luthor brought them closer. ***********************************************************************  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Late that night, Clark reached over to the box.  
  
It was so heavy. Beautiful detailing on the lead. Lex has once told him it belonged to some religious person, a knight or something.  
  
Clark opened it. There was Lex. Alone. A pile. Clark had an idea. He hoped his parents would understand.  
  
He breathed in the essence of his best friend.  
  
He inhaled strongly and *Lex* was swept up into Clark, ash/body/soul/memory/love....all the physical/emotional wonders of Alexander Luthor forever imprinted on the lungs of Clark Kent.  
  
Damn, Lex, even your ashes taste good....Clark got hard and suddenly wanted to jerk off....Laughed/cried. Clark licked his lips, wiped his face to make sure he hadn't missed any of Lex.  
  
Now we will always be together, literally.  
  
I love you.  
  
At long last, Lex, we are one....and no one can destroy this fortress of love.  
  
Now I am always holding you, inside me. We live as one.  
  
Reunion. ***********************************************************************  
  
Eyes close. Sleep comes for Clark Kent, at last. I'm breathing with you, baby. With you.  
  
***********************************************************************  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
In a well-appointed office a woman sits, poring over legal documents. She can't comprehend what has happened to one of her favorite and most reliable clients.  
  
Things like that don't happen to people I like, darling...  
  
But she has grieved thoroughly, done the rosary, and now it is time for business. He left her specific instructions. She looks out onto the streets of Zurich. Spring is just arriving. Melting snow.  
  
Renewal. Rebirth. The future.  
  
She finally finds what she has been looking for. Ahh, yes....  
  
THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF ALEXANDER LEONARD LUTHOR REVISED MARCH 1, 2003.....  
  
She reads over the document, checking every detail.  
  
Yes. It's all here, darling. Everything's legal. Yes, of course. He was always so thorough. The cable he sent me on the fifteenth last month. What genius. No one, save that wretched Loew, found out about our transactions... And that S.O.B. is six feet under... Good riddance. Messing with a good man like Lex. So refined. What a sexy, classy man....what a horror. He'd been shot....damn...she always warned him to wear a vest....you have to in their world...you never know who fucking hates you...You never who has a cocked gun aimed for your pocket. That poor boy. She had never gotten to meet them when Lex was alive. She wondered how he was dealing....so young. And so beautiful. So special, as well.....you're secret is safe as well, young man....very safe....she glanced at a drawer containing pictures, tapes, DVD...all of one certain farmboy.... She checks her watch...it's still early in Smallville. Still too early to call the boy's parents. As of noon today....your dream is his reality, my fair Lex.....happy trails, darling....I know he loved you....  
  
  
  
  
  
Well, Clark Kent...perhaps this will help you to survive....  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
You've just inherited $400 million dollars.  
  
  
  
  
  
Champagne dreams, heir Clark....  
  
Dreams.... Dreams from somewhere other... From a different perspective...  
  
***My dearest Clark. I'm so sorry I couldn't hold on. For you. I tried so damn hard.  
  
It just got too deep. I fought to breathe. I fought so hard. I just couldn't keep going. Things had to happen as they did. We both had altered history.  
  
In all these days together. You have showed me I wasn't all bad. We really fucked up here at the end.  
  
I'm somewhere else now. I don't think I'm all the way "up" But it's nice... It's all bright here and I feel safe. Not as safe as I did in your arms. I'll never recapture that feeling.  
  
Please take care, my love. Please stay there, and help them. They know not what they do. They destroyed us because we were real. We helped them via ignorance.  
  
When I first got here, and they showed me... You, the Tower.... I was shocked. Of course I can't judge you my love.  
  
I shot Loew point blank in the head. Murdered him. Guns. Blood. We drowned in avarice, my love. We let the world's violence pull us down. Fear drove us to hurt I was such a sad human being, Clark. You were once glowing. I stole your glow and turned you dark. But you can find the color again, baby. Paint the canvas rainbow colors, Splash it with hope.  
  
I was only happy during the times I spent with you. And damn I didn't want to leave. I can still feel you, wrapped all around me. The warmest blanket I ever knew. Your heart beating, racing as we made love.  
  
We set the world on fire Didn't we? Oh, my sweet Clark... I wished things had been longer I had such plans for us  
  
I wanted to get you away To Zambia or Monterey Someplace warm with palm trees And no Lionels. And no gossips. And nobody to judge our love.  
  
Just to be free my darling... Just free to hold each other, wipe away each other's tears.  
  
  
  
I see you there. Now. In that broken city. Dry your eyes, baby...your story is just beginning. As for me, the memory is all I can keep. I've already given up the flesh. I can't come back. I already asked. Begged even. No, I've got to work from this side. And even now, with all your powers, you won't hear me.  
  
I will be a shadow from here on. You may catch a glimpse of me in the ocean. In pink skies full of singing birds. You may see traces of me in moonlight. In our star.  
  
Wear my locket. I'm sorry I wasn't wearing it. When I drowned in blood. Perhaps it represents the good of us. And that day nothing good was to come.  
  
I blame neither one of us for anything. We couldn't help but run scared. In return, running into walls of destruction, walls of dripping blood. Oh, God, but Clark I don't know what eternity will be like without you?  
  
As for your future, I know this much is true. Be good to your father, Clark. He loves you. Remember, though, he's just a man. Your mother....love her. Hold her. You didn't see her face, leaning over me. More fear and pain than I had ever seen on her. She is hurting Clark. She had to watch me fade away. Tried so hard to save me. I haunt her nightmares Clark. Help her to purge herself of guilt.  
  
For yourself...my dream, my friend, my brother Please turn back towards the light Try to do your best Lover All of your body and soul was made to make someone happy I wish it could have been me for longer But we just didn't get lucky with time my love  
  
I'm so grateful for the time we got Indeed it was terribly short But the only time I was ever alive God, I wish I could have flown with you. But now, Clark, it's all sky for me And I'm glowing, my love.  
  
My memories of you The colors of the world Sausage Pizza Your body....damn....like the finest silk... French Onion Soup Emerson Oh, damn the sex....talk about earth shaking... Remember watching movies at the Manor? I've seen your dream God, I would have loved to marry you, Kal-El Your real name is even sexier than Clark.... And maybe, on some plane, it will happen Anything can happen, baby... Anything  
  
Except me coming back to you in this specific life.  
  
It was all worth it I know that much Yeah, I lost you But at least I had you... Do you realize how lucky that makes me?  
  
Since this planet was created They've all tried to find the perfect love With you, I found it. I pray you find it again. Or wait for me.  
  
They can't keep us apart forever.  
  
We had it all, Kent. All of it.  
  
I didn't think it was possible to cry here. But yes, we too can cry. Only here it's all joy. No sadness, Clark. No sadness, baby.  
  
Look for me every time you see beauty. When you hear good jazz. Look for me in the Southern Crescent In the Northern Lights In sunsets In dreams, I hope. When you feel alone, conjure me When you feel happy, let me praise you When you get angry, let me calm you.  
  
Use my memory as strength, my love. Use it as you need to. It's boundless.  
  
I am there and everywhere Always with you Always holding you.  
  
I will keep you alive from afar. I will breathe for your soul now Kent.  
  
You just do your best on the physical plane.  
  
I'm crying for you.  
  
It's getting foggy I'm not sure when I will get this close to you again I'm not even sure you hear me now.  
  
Try, Clark, remember me. Remember how you loved me. How you made me smile.  
  
You gave this guy the best days of his life. Up until the last...  
  
Love me as I love you. No questions needed. We know all the answers.  
  
I am always here. Inside you. Even better than before.  
  
I'm crying and it's beautiful.  
  
See you later,  
  
Love,  
  
Your Lex***  
  
(Love is forever, love never dies...)  
  
It had been a month. Since the funeral.  
  
Since Lex & Clark had become one.  
  
Permanent. Boundless. Untouchable. Safe.  
  
REMAINING IN LIGHT together....for all time...  
  
The morning after their reunion, Jon got another major shock. A call from Switzerland. As of that day, Clark was the wealthiest seventeen-year-old in Kansas. He had inherited Lex's entire fortune; the hidden one, that is. The four hundred or so million dollars in cash, stock, art, gems, and platinum Lex had hidden away across the globe.  
  
Jon & Martha didn't know what to do. All their married life they had struggled to make ends meet. It was unbelievable, for sure. Clark didn't give a damn about the money. Money didn't turn him on.  
  
Love did. Love was always inside him now. Flowing through his veins. In every flake of skin. In every yawn. In every exhaled breath.  
  
Isabel flew to Metropolis. Took a limo out to Smallville. There, she would lay out the intricate situation regarding Lex's money, Clark's future...  
  
She didn't tell them about Lex's other plan. She was the sole guardian of those plans now, and she was making them happen. Lex was such a good man. No one should have made him suffer, darling. LuthorCorp would fall, thanks to Izzy. In a few days, Lionel, you will have nothing. And Nell Lang was already on her way out...Whores always die badly... She would fulfill all of Lex's dying wishes. That desperate, sad, bald, young man. Just as you find love, my darling, they strip you of it. Now you can have peace, young Luthor.  
  
No need to worry your family, the Kents, with all this takeover nonsense...  
  
Isabel's limo barreled down Grand Avenue Plaza. Downtown Smallville still lay in tatters, but there were signs or repair already present. She smiled as the city faded and farms began to appear. So bucolic. So rich with growth. No wonder Lex found love here. The land was green, fed by generous rains and the retreat of Jack Frost. Flowers bloomed everywhere. The famed sunflowers were just sprouting, however. Their glowing heads of promise not revealed 'till summer. Izzy knew this place was special.  
  
And there was Kent Farms. What a clean, attractive place. Red barn. American Gothic. But without the gothic. No, this is the home to happy people.  
  
Getting out of the limo, cigarette holder glistening in the bright light, Izzy walks to the porch. Martha Kent is sweeping. She places her hand on her forehead to block the sun. Smiling curiously.  
  
You don't see many women out here dripping in diamonds on a hot May afternoon. You don't see many women handcuffed to briefcases, either. Damn. This must be her.  
  
"Isabel? Are you the one--"  
  
"Yes, darling....I was Lex's silent partner. May I come in? I have some very interesting information for you and Mr. Kent. Regarding your son."  
  
Martha quickly ushers her into the kitchen. Isabel is charmed by the genuine country atmosphere. So hard to find people with legitimate decorating tastes these days, darling. Everyone is a copycat, a poseur. Everyone simply borrows someone else's idea. Martha poured her a cup of dark coffee. Isabel extinguished her smoke. They obviously cherish their lungs, she laughed to herself. Smart People.  
  
"Smells wonderful, darling." Smiles at Martha, who looks somewhat concerned.  
  
"Ma'am....Jon said Clark had inherited Lex's estate. But we assumed Lex was broke, after the entire party incident and all..."  
  
"Oh, darling...Lex hated to conceal all this but it was all for your boy. He had to let you and your family think he was poor. He wanted Clark to be taken care of, to be able to go to college in Timbuktu if he wanted. He wanted for you and your husband to never worry about loans and mortgages again. He wanted all of you to enjoy life, darling. Stress free and relaxed. The way he so desperately wanted to be himself."  
  
Martha held back tears. Her other son, Lex. God, what he had done for them. For Clark.  
  
"Is your husband here, darling? There are many documents both you and he will have to sign as trustees of the accounts. Certain accounts will come to Clark at age eighteen; others at twenty-one, thirty, forty, and so on...He is set for life. All of you are."  
  
"Both Jon and Clark will be here in just a second. They went to the cooperative to deliver some snap peas."  
  
"Snap peas...delicious, darling. It must be wonderful out here. All these trees and fields."  
  
"It really is great. I grew up in Metropolis. Never thought I'd like the country. Now, I'd never leave it."  
  
"Yes, darling. I wish I never had to leave Grand Cayman. But business is business."  
  
Martha speaks, gently...  
  
"How long did you know Lex, if I can ask?"  
  
Isabel smiles. Takes Martha's hand in hers. Damn, Martha thinks. Look at those *rocks*  
  
"I met Alexander at a party when he was five. Just a beautiful child. Full of life. His mother was as well. Such tragedy, what happened to her....Lionel, of course, said she had to go...Ibiza...pink sky, blue sea, darling....black sky....that fucking chulo....he knew it was storming..."  
  
Martha wants to ask....but this is one subject Lex never discussed....Isabel's comment had cleared up most of the mystery....how evil, Lionel....damn you....  
  
Izzy is lost in memories...."....Alexandra and Lex were a pair. Always loud and laughing. All that red hair. So happy, so fulfilled in each other. Lionel was always a bastard to both of them. I started doing legal, financial work for LuthorInternational not long after that; maybe Spring of 1985, darling."  
  
"So you worked closely with Lionel?"  
  
"Too close. He's the devil, dear."  
  
"Yeah, we figured that."  
  
"I didn't last long working for him. But I had learned I was good at moving things around for people. Making things hidden. Keeping secrets. So, I began outside consulting and eventually ended up with several lucrative clients."  
  
"Of which Lex was one?"  
  
"Since his teen years, darling. Lex was a very sad man, inside. He had a fear of dying as long as I can remember. Those lung problems, you know. His mother had had severe lung sicknesses too. Lionel saw it as weakness. I thought they had cleared up, darling...." Winces.  
  
"They worsened, if anything, after all the events last year. The attempted suicide, the party.....Clark was so worried about his lungs too..."  
  
Izzy's face brightens, wistfully: "Clark...the one, darling. The one. Lex loved him so...."  
  
"It wasn't a easy road for my son and Lex. So many terrible things happened to them."  
  
"I know. But they had love, darling. Love. We should all be jealous!" Laughs sadly..."No, if anything you should be glad, Martha, glad that you got to see them together. You got to see them love one another. Play that marvelous game called romance. I saw the joy in Lex's face when he was on the West Coast. It was the only time I'd ever seen him with his guard down. No barriers. Just pleasure, darling. Pleasure at being alive."  
  
Martha squeezes Isabel's hand. They smile at one another.  
  
Laughter filters in from the garden. Hearty, male laughter.  
  
"That's Jon and Clark."  
  
"The ones, darling. Lex's one. Your one."  
  
Jonathan & Clark bound into the kitchen, giggling and flushed. They look so healthy, so connected. Jonathan hugs Martha.  
  
"Hey babe."  
  
"Hey yourself. Jon, this is Isabel. Lex's friend. From Switzerland."  
  
Whoa. A wave of uncertainty washed through him. Another major life change. Another revolution. But she had a warm face. She was gorgeous, to be honest. Too rich for his blood, too refined. But still--  
  
(a guy can look, can't he?)  
  
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Kent."  
  
"Call me Jonathan."  
  
Smiles all around.  
  
Isabel looks beyond Jon. To the one. The boy. He doesn't look like any boy to me, Lexy. He's beautiful. Damn, so tall. Big head. Big hands. Look at those feet. That proves one thing... Lex always liked big feet. But this one has a big heart, too. The eyes...like sapphire lemonade....the mouth....supple and wet...look at the kindness there, too.  
  
My god, he's like a painting of Creation itself. The beauty of the entire world. Of the entire universe, poured into his form. My God, Lex, you were lucky. Blessed. He truly is not of this place.  
  
"Hello, darling. I was a very good friend to Lex Luthor." Takes his hand.  
  
"Hi. Nice to m-m-eet you, ma'am." Clark stammers....  
  
So, Lex had had at least one friend. That made him feel good. He was always scared that Lex had no one to talk to. Outside of him. No one older maybe, wiser....smarter about business and caviar and fine art....this lady was obviously that kind of friend...and something else...she looked so sincere, honest.  
  
God, how his baby had craved honesty. Truth.  
  
"Lex loved you."  
  
"I know."  
  
"You changed his life forever. Everything he did was for you, Clark Kent."  
  
"I don't understand, ma'am, though...why didn't he tell me about the money?"  
  
"Clark, darling, Lex had a plan. He wanted everything to be right. If he had lived, he wanted all of you, you and your parents, himself, to enjoy the money...to travel and see the world. To see the house on the ocean. To hold his hand at the opera, my darling. He so wanted you to have all doors opened for you...."  
  
"All doors opened...." God, Lex....if only I could have done more for you. Opened more windows to let the air in. But no regrets...  
  
"Ma'am....Isabel...what does all this mean?"  
  
"It means you're rich...and you'll never have to work again, if you so choose. It means you have unlimited choices."  
  
Clark can't believe it. He's rich. He's never, ever cared about having money. Sure, having nice clothes once in a while and buying CD's and...a car would be nice....but four hundred million....wow....fucking A, Lexy....  
  
"Now, Clark...your parents are trustees until your eighteenth birthday. Which means they will initially make all the decisions regarding the estate."  
  
"I get it."  
  
"Clark...we're not going to just start buying things, OK son?" Ruffles his son's wild black hair. Smiling.  
  
"Sure, I know."  
  
Martha speaks:  
  
"Isabel....what about Luthor Manor? I know Lex still had some things there...his mother's plants, a few personal items..."  
  
"Luthor Manor is not included. I am sorry. Lionel controls it still. But things change, you never know, darling. Real estate wise, Clark gets the house at Manalapan, a condominium in Metropolis, a villa in Nice, and the flat in London."  
  
Clark's eyes widen at the names of foreign places. Wow. Damn. But it won't be the same without you there, baby.  
  
"Jesus." Jonathan is speechless.  
  
"I guess we have a reason to get passports now, Jon," Martha smirks.  
  
"Clark already has one. Lex had it made for emergencies...." Isabel reaches into briefcase and pulls out official form...."...If anyone had come looking for him..."  
  
Martha and Jon know what she really means. But they don't want to scare their son. So they cover...  
  
"You, know, Clark...the Tower....investigations could have led to you..."  
  
Isabel smiles at Clark, patting him on the shoulder....  
  
"Don't worry about that now, darling. Everything's done. They will never connect you to anything. Anything. Lex wanted you protected at all costs. No matter what. And he has done that."  
  
Clark smiles, a smile painted with love and loss.  
  
Forms are signed. Jon and Martha thank Isabel for being Lex's friend. For being loyal.  
  
"He was lucky to have you."  
  
"No....you two are lucky to have *that* one..." Points at Clark..."He's a living angel...a God...in and out...I know somewhere, Lexy is rolling through meadows, smiling at existence...."  
  
"Now about the other things I have laid out..." Drawing the two of them close..."There is a psychologist at Greenmont College, a Dr. Elizabeth Lane. She can help Clark deal with any negative emotions, guilts....Lex investigated long and hard to find someone to help Clark...."  
  
"Dr. Lane! She was one of my professors at Greenmont, years and years ago."  
  
"Yes, darling. Lex was aware of that. And she can be trusted. Only if he needs to...talk...Lex wanted him to be happy. No pain, ever again...."  
  
Jon & Martha hug. Izzy clasps both of their hands in hers. Then exits kitchen.  
  
Clark is on the porch. Isabel stops, taking his shoulder in her gloved hand...  
  
"Do you understand everything that I told you?"  
  
"Yes....there's so much....my Mom is real smart though...she knows how to keep up the books..."  
  
"Yes, she is bright, my dear....so is your father. They love you. For being their son. For being a good person. So kind, my dear. So watch over them, sweet boy. Watch over them, star child."  
  
"You know everything, don't you?" Clark is not worried. Just amazed. And glad that Lex had trusted this woman.  
  
"I know what matters and forget what doesn't matter....Take care, dear child. Remain in the light with Lex, always, darling. He's there, if you look for him..."  
  
Isabel is gone.  
  
Clark sits on the porch. Trying to take everything in. It's so much. But nothing out of the ordinary. After all, Clark Kent is from Krypton. He fell to earth in a ship, a ship he still hasn't fully investigated. *Need to do that sometime*  
  
Sooner or later, he would.  
  
*********************************************************************** Money, of course, would never change the Kents. Lex knew that. He just hadn't wanted them to struggle so terribly in the future. And he so wanted Clark to be able to go to college. Any college he wished. And travel, get a boat, see the stars over Mustique.  
  
Clark dealt quite well with his newfound currency. His parents bought him a car. A Chevy pick up. 1992. Clark didn't care at all that it wasn't new. He was just grateful to finally have a car of his own.  
  
Often, Martha would allow him to go into Metropolis to buy clothes or go to the Virgin Megastore (they have the best selection, I swear)...  
  
There, Clark would usually revisit some of the special places Lex had showed him. His favorite was the Palace of Arts.  
  
Clark would walk around the lavish complex, returning to the sculpture garden where he and Lex had played. Going inside and being comforted by Mondrian. And Chagall. And Matisse. The color and meaning swirled around him, giving him peace. He would sit out on the front steps of the Palace, the grand marble promenade leading towards Metropolis Square; all the people milling about. The sights, the sounds, the clamor. Everything about the city screamed Lex. And Clark felt like home. Felt one with everything around him.  
  
The talks with Dr. Lane had really helped him. He liked going to Greenmont anyway. It was so pretty up there. Maybe a good choice for school, after all...  
  
Mom would be *thrilled*, Clark smiled to himself. ***********************************************************************  
  
In the summer, his parents allowed him to visit the house at Manalapan.  
  
They held him tight before he boarded the jet at Metropolis International. Hand in hand, they watched their little boy go off on his first trip alone.  
  
But they trusted Clark. And he wasn't their little miracle anymore. He was bright. He was kind. He was a man of his own. A good man.  
  
Ahhh...the miracle called Manalapan....  
  
This tiny village, just south of Palm Beach, is home to marvelous oceanfront homes, swaying palms, pink sky and blue sea...  
  
This was Lex's fantasy world... This was where he wanted us to lie in the sand. Clark glowed as the taxi pulled up at the house, on the ocean side of the A1A.  
  
Clark walked around the house for hours. It wasn't anything as pretentious and large as the Manor. But it was so much more intimate and distinct. Portraits of Lex and his mother hung in several niches. Lex happy. There was a beautiful clear pool facing the Atlantic.  
  
The rooms were mostly bare. Here and there, colorful custom pieces of furniture filled the space.  
  
Someone was still placing fresh cut orchids in vases, all throughout the house....  
  
Clark walked around the pool, listening to the soothing waves nearby. Sky dusters all around him. They really did *clean* the sky, didn't they. The house was stucco, painted a delicious salmon-orange. Hibiscus. Birds-of-paradise. Bamboo, lotus pools (Eden, perhaps?) Bougainvillea grew wildly all over the roof. The fence. Blending into the patches of sea oats, shaded by Australian Pine and Sea Grape. The Atlantic. Clark walked over to a mango tree, ripe with flower and fruit, and plucked off a rich morsel. He bit into the sweet nectar of the tropics, letting the juice run freely down his lips, chin, dripping like wax onto his firm chest...  
  
And he was there, in the garden, with Lex. He knew he was dreaming but it was O.K. I love you, Lex. Lex and Clark share the mango. Biting into it, licking at each other's mouths. Feeding one another. Lex is tanned. Clark is star struck. The sky dusters cleanse the atmosphere, the future, just for them. They bow and say hello. The beautiful dream is always alive.  
  
They have no need for words. A thousand golden birds sing their theme over a thousand golden beaches. The theme of hope. Of redemption. Of trust. That two people really can save one another. Change one another. Grow together. Towards heaven.  
  
And then Clark is inside Lex. So much more than average fucking. Hands clasped in bond, bodies thrashing, sweet sweat pouring off the two of them. Clark moaning, grabbing, holding, breathless. Lex plants his mouth to Clark's and exhales. Clark inhaling paradise. Cock on cock. Bodies oiled to perfection. Enlightenment. Personal bliss.  
  
Then just lying there. Humid. Wet. Florida. Jungle enchantment. Clark leans over to Lex, looking through in, about him. Lex looks back....the perfect mirror reflection of loyalty. No boundaries. No lines.  
  
Chaos. Control. Adaptation.  
  
Allusion.  
  
Reconciliation.  
  
The greens and blues and pinks and lavender spin together, and around, and under the two lovers. There is no need for reason. Everything is understood.  
  
Clark takes Lex in his mouth....down his throat. Feels flushed, filled up.... Lex feeds Clark his life...  
  
Tastes like wine. Mixed with orgasmic delight.  
  
Perhaps all this is irrational But who needs rational Love is never practical Just wonderful  
  
Clark and Lex stay this way for a while. Then Clark wakes up. Possibilities.... Anything could happen here... After all, this was hurricane country...  
  
The beach the color of burnt sugar. And honey. Sweet to the eye, like silk to the body.  
  
The sky turned pink. The storm clouds are way offshore, near Bimini. The royal palms rustle. Clark hears soft singing, steel drums... Someone is having a party... So am I....  
  
Feel me, Clark.  
  
The water rolls, over and over, so much mystery there....so much depth... Pain too...of course. Jagged guilt. Clark Kent knows now that greatest triumph only comes with high prices. Nothing is free. Certainly nothing is easy. Even for a sweetheart from Krypton. Life is accepting the pain, guilt and the glory. No wasted time on melancholy.  
  
Clark strips naked and walks towards the sea. Burnt sugar coating his feet...  
  
His body competing with the sun for perfection itself...  
  
Rolling blue. Lex's eyes. The stars applaud. Aqua. A cathedral of possibility. The ceremony is complete. They are one.  
  
White. Black. The spectrum itself invites Clark in for a closer look...  
  
He dives in...the sand and clarity enveloping him. Holding him. Lex is there. Lex is everywhere. Pink sky above, as below.  
  
As above, so below...  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
And Clark floats upon the Atlantic, his bronzed body and cleansed soul refreshed; his heart open, his memories prescient.  
  
Lex floats with him, holding onto him, inside him, never letting go....I love you, Clark.  
  
The dolphins laugh as Clark begins to rise above the water. I feel you, Lex. I feel you! He is smiling. Light everywhere.  
  
Rise, Clark Kent. Rise.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The air will hold him. Memories will protect him. He will never be alone again. Life is a collage of sky blue color and reverent dreams.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Love wins after all.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
END 


End file.
